THIS IS ONE OF MY FAVOURITE experimental silhouette projects. I created it using visitors to the Caversham Arts Trail as models. For this reason the choice of model is quite random: not based on looks or modelling expertise, but simply who happened to walk trough the door that day. The silhouettes are an exploration of likeness, the unfamiliar likeness of the silhouette next to the familiar image of the photograph.
The viewer is struck first of all by the dominant image of the photograph. Yet, if the eye lingers, the edges of the silhouette draw the eye outwards to find the silhouette. After a while the fact the both silhouette and photograph are the same person makes itself clear. The titles were all suggested by the subjects of each image, I discussed this with them as they posed for their silhouette.
Mixed Media
Silhouettes and photography make an unlikely partnership, but the histories of these two arts are deeply entwined
Capacity
I took the photographs with a new camera I'd bought recently while cutting silhouettes at the Photography Show at Birmingham NEC
A Work in Progress
I posed the subject against a black studio drape, turned down the lights, and lit their face with a single low-wattage tungsten bulb. I really enjoyed the shadows which resulted from this
Dancing Queen
Experimenting with light and shadow is really what silhouettes are all about
The Trumpet Player
In the 1850s and 60s many silhouettists scrapped their physiognotrace machines and bought cameras instead. They thus became some of the earliest photographers
Food Loving Organising Service Manager
The silhouettes were all cut freehand with scissors, scanned and then digitally combined with the photographs
The Mindful Traveller Through Life
The title was chosen by the sitter. I asked each person to think about a single word which summed them up
The Thoughtful Social Worker
I made this set of photographic silhouettes during an open studio event in 2019. I used visitors to the studio as models, they each had no idea this was about to happen!
If this isn't me, then who am I? The Voyage Continues...
Whenever I think about the lives of the eighteenth and nineteenth-century silhouettists whose work I study, I have to remind myself that none of them would ever have seen a photograph
I Love My Life
It's interesting to compare the outlines and the photographs. Are they the same person?
Happy + Chilled
I'd love the opportunity to repeat this project in a more public setting, perhaps as a "portrait of a town" project
Collector of Too Many Things
I wonder if there could be a crossover between this project and my 2021 masked paper-cut portrait project? Perhaps the photograph with as mask and the silhouette not?
Friendly Architect
I've included the whole series here. This is partly because the series is a work in itself, partly because there are none I really hate. I do have my favourites though
Welsh Designer Trying to Make Her Mark!
During post production I had a lot of fun moving the face in relation to the outline. Sometimes the relationship between the two images seems almost to speak
Struggling Over-Caring Empath
I tried at first to make these in colour, but quickly realised black and white was the better format
Trying to Be Free Spirit
I took perhaps twenty photographs of each person, but only cut one silhouette
English My Second Language (Loiterer)
The silhouettes were all cut suing my favourite pair of surgical scissors
Pilot, Engineer & Walker
I added some shadows just inside the silhouettes to create the effect of a face peering out through a silhouette-shaped space
Going Grey Disgracefully
The face appears to be looking though a window
The Curious German
This project was created over two weekends of the Caversham Arts Trail on May 2019
Silhouettes at Mays Barn 2019
I cut two copies of each silhouette. The white copies were kept for scanning, whilst the black copies were all given away as thank yous to those who volunteered to take part
Silhouettes cit for photographs
I asked each person to add their name and suggested title t the white copy of the silhouette
First set of silhouettes
The silhouettes were cut both larger and more slowly that I would usually cut. This is because I wanted accurate shadows rather than the slightly caricatured silhouettes I usually cut at events
THESE GALLERIES ARE DISPLAYED for artistic interest. Many of my art works are available for sale. Others have been sold, bartered or given away over the years. If anything catches your eye, or if you’d like to arrange a studio visit (either real work or virtual) do please get in touch. While the most recent galleries represent ongoing work, you can browse collections of art from various projects over many years here.
