Simm Steel
19 June to 14 July
MAY SPACE
» Exhibition Catalogue
One day when I didn’t have my camera in hand, I realised my Nokia 6300 actually had a camera and, with the thought that I would miss any fleeting image, I began to use its small digital eye to capture what might be lost forever. I didn’t believe anything could ever come of these tiny images and the sole purpose of using this ‘camera’ was to remind myself to return to the scene and take the ‘real’ shot – a ridiculous task - and so began the archive of when all was lost and found.
I found in a mobile phone camera a new personality born of a small sensor that wore its jpeg artefacts as a binding fabric. I could not avoid the technological imperfections, but the resulting images were becoming defined by them. I was forcing the mechanism to look at close range into and through, paint, dirt, scratches, water, questioning what is and what is not.
With a way of capturing images so easily the digital file opens out to a place of visions that are not preconceived, nor explainable by academic research or introspection, but instead present the history of one’s experience, expectations, or trends.
Simm Steel, 2019
PLEASE NOTE: the works illustrated on the website are a small selection from the 122 photographs on exhibition in the Gallery.
» Back to previous page