If you’ve followed my page and blog posts recently (thank you) you will have no doubt seen this image cropping up a few times. I’m really proud of it and it’s performed really well for me in competitions. You can read the story of how it was conceived in my earlier blog post.
In addition to all the great things that have happened with this image, I can share with you now that a print of it will be hanging in the wonderful main gallery space at The Dick Institute in Kilmarnock. It has been selected to be included in the Open Art Exhibition there as part of East Ayrshire Leisure‘s 10th Anniversary celebration program which runs from 19th May – 26th August 2023.
“Showcasing the high quality of creative talent from artists across Ayrshire, the exhibition will promote the work of our regional artists and enable visitors to see a broad diverse range of contemporary practices by bringing a selection of this work together in a wonderful display in the Dick Institute’s beautiful Main Gallery.”
Many thanks to East Ayrshire Leisure for choosing my image for inclusion and I can’t wait to see it hanging in the gallery alongside other local artist’s work.
The Societies of Photographers chose this image as their winner of Monochrome Photographer of the Year 2022, for which I’m still smiling (and polishing the winning glass trophy daily!!)
My photographic style has changed over the years in various forms but at it’s heart my work is mainly influenced by classically lit portraits and paintings. I love the work of old masters as well as more modern artists. Among many familiar names, the likes of Caravaggio, Rembrandt etc. I also love Sir Henry Raeburn’s wonderful portraits.
At a recent visit to the National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh I was blown away when I saw the work of Ken Currie: haunting, unsettling and dramatically lit, it just struck a chord with me.
I prefer darker themes and scenes and maybe that is the familiarity and influence of those artists that I seem to hold on to.
I usually have a vision for the final image before clicking the camera shutter and sometimes it can develop, pardon the pun, slightly differently depending on what I’ve got going on in my head during the edit.
In the case of this image of my son, and wife’s protecting hands, however, I had such a strong image in my head for what I wanted for the final edit that it came together quickly during the making of the photograph and the edit. We were scared, feeling vulnerable and more than a little isolated during the first few months of lockdown and I think that really came through during the creation of this work.
Here are a few images from the day we created this image in our family living room.
I hope you can pop along to see it displayed in this beautiful gallery along with the other works from local artists.
Special shout out to Paul and the team at One Vision Imaging for printing and originally framing the image and also to Will at Gallery 2, Kilmarnock for the great job on the glass upgrade and fitting the mirror plates ready to hang in the gallery.
M.
MARTIN CLARK PHOTOGRAPHY 