- Venue
- Studio KIND.
- Starts
- Friday, January 28, 2022
- Ends
- Saturday, February 5, 2022
- Address
- Unit 3, Velator Way, Braunton, North Devon, EX33 2FB
- Location
- South West England
- Organiser
- Studio KIND.
George Rayner specialises in analogue black and white photographic printing; a methodical and deliberate process that reflects his visualisations. Developing the conventional analogue technique into one more ecologically sustainable and allowing nature to have a place within his work, he explores his relationship with the environment through materialistic allegory in quiet landscapes with a gentle humour. His work often considers themes of climate change, unveiling humankind’s impact upon the Earth, and interpretations of our existence.
‘Hung out to Dry’ explores George’s experiences of dealing with death for the first time and acting as an emotional support for another, and uses photography to work through and reflect his feelings by way of melancholic landscapes and places. Through the slow and systematic process of analogue printing, George finds a meditative way to process mortality. ‘I find myself lost in transient states. I air my dirty laundry, in an act of self-purification.’
Through exploring his own cultural and historical attitudes towards nature, ‘Coasting’ explores the current ecological concerns of rising sea levels and pollution. George draws upon the anthropomorphisation of nature, much like the folklore of the green man and mariner rhymes, and through the eyes of the ancient seafarer cast upon our shores he observes this crumbling landscape, now scarred.
Re-evaluation of the conventional chemical photographic process led to George exploring natural resources. Seaweed, collected from his daily walk, is used to develop photographic film, whilst caffenol is used in the production of the prints. The inconsistencies and unpredictability, which occurs within those ecological processes, lends each print its own idiosyncratic qualities, allegorical of nature itself.
George Rayner is an emerging visual artist from Croyde, North Devon, with a BA in Photography from the University of Derby. He completed an internship at FORMAT 21 International Photography Festival and recently exhibited as part of the graduate award.
