BA (Hons) Photography
Postal Service This body of work is produced with pinhole cameras as they journey through the postal system, en-route to collectors and exhibitions. On arrival at its destination, the parcels pre determined recipient stops the panoptic exposure. The by-product of this frenetic system are paper negatives which record the differing spatial relationships they encounter. This gesture employs a chain of participants in an effort to democratise the production of each piece of work. The resulting prints invite the viewer to prise out coherent environments from the virtual. The serendipity often found in documentary photography comes to the fore in the production of each abstract piece, and so serves to elevate concept over a kitsch aesthetic value. This duality is extended, as each tangible piece is unique to its meanderings. As a consequence each paper depiction and any material defects remain testament to its preparation, and subsequent journey. Statement My work has developed a vocabulary based on the documentary genre and its recourse to alternative modes of representation. This has led me to employ diverse methodologies, which bring together motifs from a wide variety of sources including Neoclassical sculpture, early 17th century landscape painting and twentieth century abstraction. Using predominantly lens-based technologies, and the material nature of the photograph my work aims to raise questions surrounding absolutism. To accomplish this I make interventions into every day systems, which often bring the serendipity of traditional documentary to the fore. This often involves using journeys to subject the work to a chain of participants or a series of environments, which dictate an outcome past my instigation. In placing work at the mercy of such intersections of time and space, idiosyncrasies are encouraged to creep in. Consequentially my work is infused with a slippage between the represented and the actual. geoffbartholomew.co.uk geoffbartholomew14@gmail.com