Photographer
The separation between event and photograph is the main area of investigation in this series of work. By creating a camera that works against the normal logic of the modern camera; manually run, long time exposures, distorting detail and form and always unsure of the results, Andrew Longstaff looks into the event of making a photograph and what we expect to be able to see in the final image.
Through making the event of the photograph more of an experience in itself, spending time in the space and exploring the areas while exposing the images, a contrast is made to both the normal practices of “happy snap” photography and the photographic image itself; The normal recording nature of the photograph by light is replaced by recording by experience.
The final outcome of this experience is in conflict with what we expect from a photograph. The images produced by this method create panoramic images of a scene that bears little resemblance to the original location. Colours, shapes and orders of objects are distorted, swapped and amalgamated into one long image, leaving the viewer to try and decipher the contents. This separation from the normal availability of information and ease of reading a photographic image is an open question for the interpretation of the viewer: How much can the photograph be trusted to show what we see and know of a space?