An Exhibition With A Film Photography Collective

Exhibiting our work is such a wonderful part of photography. So, when I had a positive response to putting my name forward for ‘Silver & Light: An Analogue Photographic Exhibition’ earlier in the year, I, of course, was thrilled.

The exhibition, which the brilliant Katie-Louise Cooper curated, was a true coming together of creative minds, with a diverse mix of photographers whose work spans all manner of subjects. This made for such a unique look into film photography in 2024 and showcased the different mediums photographers explore.

I find printing my work is a real completion of a particular creative idea, the finishing piece of the puzzle, so to speak. It is an absolute joy to see high-quality prints of images we’ve created and I implore you all to print your favourite photos if you haven’t done so already.

From the planning of my exhibition shoot to the experience of this particular shoot to organising the prints and getting them exhibit-ready, it was a massive positive focus for me this year.

I connected with a local Devon flower grower a couple of weeks prior, who delivered a gorgeous locally-grown bouquet, the star of the show being the Alstroemeria.
Then, with the essential assistance from my Mum and brother for the setup, and for the lighting. We pulled over the table to arrange the flowers and drape the black velvet material as both a background and a surface.

Despite not being able to attend this wonderful exhibit at the vast space of Canwood Gallery, Hereford, simply being involved and having something positive to work towards was everything I needed and more.

Now, let’s take a glimpse into the work of each artist who featured in this exhibition.

The Artists

Marta Arjona Blasca

Marta is an exceptionally talented photographer specialising in dance photography. The work Marta creates is always very emotive and full of movement, she has recently been awarded the Ilford Photo Grant 2024.

Chris Kuhn

Chris’ work is a real experimentation of analogue, using varied techniques which truly create a unique result.

Paul Fisk

Paul’s photography very much continues the theme of experimenting with film. When I initially saw his images, I was surprised to hear that everything he produces is unedited and straight out of the camera.

Diane Barker

Diane’s interesting documentary-style work was a delight to be introduced to through the exhibition. The Tibetan Nomad Project she has created is brilliantly engaging.

Wayne Lee

Wayne is a photographer who uses his camera as a form of escape and has quite an eclectic mix of images.

Caitlin Warren

Caitlin is a photographer and filmmaker with a knack for creating intimate, expressive portraits. With a particular pull towards dreamy images that connect with human nature.

Stacey Mutkin

The spontaneity in Stacey’s photography shines through, even from the first look at this particular image. When learning of Stacey has experience with press photography, it’s clear to see where the style stems from.

Mandy Izquierdo (Mandy Left)

Mandy’s film work is nothing short of stunning, with inspiration flowing from the images. The most impactful photography I have seen from Mandy, is the engaging series ‘Meditative Rose’, with one image pictured below.

Kristian Faulkner

Kristian is a knowledgeable photographer who shoots exclusively black and white film, with his work exploring themes surrounding industrial decline.

Dave Walker

Dave is an experimental photographer who focuses his work on alternative chemical processes and pinhole imagery.

Aleksandra Jachowicz

Aleksandra’s photography is a depiction of her life, capturing the great and unique moments we can each encounter, showing how everyone’s perspective differs.

Katie Downham

Katie’s emotive series of images for this exhibition explored her Mother’s allotment, I felt a pull towards the beauty of this body of work and how the wonder of nature is depicted. This is a continuation from Katie’s book, ‘Grounded’, which is all photographed with her Hasselblad 500cm.

Ray Liu

Ray’s work truly makes an impact, wholly specialising in Polaroid film since 2012, pushing the boundaries of instant film. His current series has been wonderful to engage with online, titled, ‘An Instant Leap: 366 Stranger Portraits’.

Agnieszka Konarska

Agnieska’s work shows another experimental side of photography, using alternative creative processes, which achieve fantastic results.

Sophie Martinelli

Sophie’s love for analogue is evidently shown when looking through her previous work. Her photography has a significant pull towards the exploration of other countries and their traditions and customs, making for extremely interesting work.

Robert Andrews

Robert is a great environmental portrait and documentary photographer working on film. Also known as the great London Camera Project, where he hosts a range of film photo walks, workshops and inclusive meet-ups.

Peter Gault

Peter’s photography has an eclectic style, having experimented with a true range of various subjects. Peter also fronts This Is How I Roll, where he sells Kodak Motion Picture film – from 500T to 250D and everything in between, his images reflect that diversity in style.

Nicolás Barnes-Almaraz

Nicolás’ images mainly explore his interesting observations from various cultures abroad, which demonstrate a documentary style.

Lia Ferreira

Lia’s photography has been heavily intertwined with her academic pursuits, with a particular fascination towards visual anthropology.

Katie-Louise Cooper

Katie is a passionate artist who creates unique prints in her home darkroom. The exhibition project, titled ‘Evanescent Nature’, captures the beauty of the natural world portrayed in an incredibly interesting manner. With each piece of nature that Katie has captured, a unique darkroom process is used to bring life back to these plants, as their silhouettes are exposed onto different photographic paper, as a way to preserve that plant with various experimental techniques. This body of work is also now available in Katie’s first zine, which I highly recommend checking out.

Dave Powney

Dave’s photography is mainly captured with the half-frame format, after his intrigue of the format over the past few years. I am particularly drawn to Dave’s architectural images.

Andrew Williams

Andy has a keen interest in the development of traditional photographic prints utilizing his handmade pinhole cameras. Through this technique, he creates an array of varied images, which all touch on various subjects.

Amber-Rose Smith

Amber has a wonderful way of creating her vision, especially when it comes to her recent work. The series of images Amber exhibited was titled ‘Stories From The Coast’, which truly portrays English coastal beauty.

Alex Bridge

Alex’s work certainly stands out from the crowd, most especially with his photography of recent adventures in Japan. Alex produced a project for Canwood Gallery called ‘Hokkaido Winter’, which is a culmination of landscape work, predominantly from Biei, experimenting heavily with infrared film.

This is undoubtedly a collective of wonderfully talented and varied photographers, it’s brilliant to be involved with ‘Silver & Light’.

For my contribution to the Spring exhibition, I was lucky enough to continue to work with the most proficient and skilled printer, Mike Crawford of Lighthouse Darkroom, in London. Mike has worked with such incredible photographers in his career, I feel honoured to have his expertise on board.

For my botanical shoot, I was certain that I wanted to use medium format, so I used my Yashica Mat loaded with some Lomography film – for the first shoot, I used Lomo CN 400, followed by Lomo CN 800 for the second. This is the first time I experimented with using Lomography film stocks in 120, I adore the colours and the vibrancy of this film, and I very much look forward to using more of it in this format.

A perfect bound zine was also made full of work from each photographer, which is a great look into the exhibition and the collective overall. It was put together by photographer, Alex Bridge and printed at Mixam.

The Silver & Light exhibition was a delight to be involved with and was very much a highlight of my year. It certainly gave me a nudge in the right direction – to create new work, print photos that I’m proud of, connect with the wider film community and be able to exhibit my photography again was just wonderful to achieve in 2024.

I very much hope to push for more brilliant opportunities like this and if you haven’t already, I urge you to connect with the community, you never know the fantastic people you’ll connect with or where it will lead.

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