Sense of Faded Memories
On Dymchurch Beach
Today’s feature will bring us the work of Matthew Bull a bit closer:
“Much of my photography tries to convey a sense of a faded memory, somehow on the edge of the mind’s eye. Perhaps a scene you might feel brings back a sense of some time or place you can’t quite recall, as if it were part of a dream. To me conveying a mood or an emotion is far more important than capturing a perfectly composed and focused shot. That’s not how we actually see, and it’s certainly not how our minds work.
“The image on the top was shot on a Canon 5D MkII on a big, wide, sandy beach on the south coast. One of the advantages of this particular beach is that it’s rarely very busy, so you can get some really nice open shots. This photo was processed a little to give it a rather unworldly copper colour, and to highlight the clouds. It prints really well on Kokak Endura Metallic – a paper which doesn’t work for every type of shot – because it highlights the strange other-worldliness of the beach.
Flight of Freedom
“I think I shot this some years ago in France on 35mm, but I’m not absolutely sure exactly where or when it was. It’s a simple enough photo: the eye being led over the gorgeously lit cobblestones to the fleeting shadow of a bird. I like this photo print printed on heavily textured papers such as Canson Aquarelle, or Hahnemuhle’s Photo Rag or German etching.
Country Scene
“A simple country scene, and part of a series of photos I took on a windy hilltop in Kent. This photo was taken on a Holga with 120 film, and then processed a little to lend it a somewhat haunted feel. Again, it works particularly well on heavily textured matte papers.
Arsenal Man
“Totally opposed in style to much of my more recent work, Arsenal Man is a photo I took many years ago on a Lomo LC-A. It was shot very quickly on a very busy, hot day in Westward Ho!, Devon. This is actually one of my favourite shots because I just love the contrast between the man in the foreground (with the Arsenal tattoo) and the crowded, long beach drawing off far into the distance. It’s also a sort of pale homage to Martin Parr, one of my photographic heros.
“I love toy cameras like the Holga, and recently got a LomoKino. It’s a kind of lo-fi cine camera, which takes 35mm film but shoots 1/4 sized frames as fast as you can crank the handle. I’d like to experiment with this as a rather rough cine camera, but I’m also excited at the idea of taking lots of frames from the film and printing them together. I like the idea of trying to convey the progression of time – and a sense of movement – in a static format”
Interested in more? Visit matthewbull.net!
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