Borderlands

Kevin O'Briens Blog — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 13:52:40 +0000

Borderlands – An exhibition of 10 images by Kevin R. O’Brien

A big thank you to all those who attended the exhibition at Old Gala House Galashiels.

This was my second joint exhibition with Diane Mitchell. I will inform you where it will be next but until then you can view it here.

The first was “Making Waves” A selection of paintings and photography depicting elements of the Berwickshire coast exhibited at The Eyemouth Museum Gallery earlier this year.

For the Making Waves project I went back to my roots in photography by creating images with an old film style and atmosphere rather than show the clean sharpness of digital imaging. This exhibition was very well received.

Hoping for the same appreciation, my aim this time was to shoot ten landscape images, showing elements of the land and water. Using a similar tact, I have created a set of images that are not predictable ‘chocolate box’ landscape images. In some I wanted to show elements of the Borderlands in the dark, damp conditions that so often prevail, but simultaneously creating attractive and collectable images.

I believe there are no limits to photographic art and for this project I have used a toy camera as well as my digital cameras. I also experimented with clear acetate sheet over the lens to give a very basic vintage look. Most have been shot with high spec digital cameras but I defused the images by scanning Agfa 1600 & T-Max 3200 film and used the grain of the film base as a layer to enhance the grain in the images, then used Adobe Photoshop to construct my final images.

Each image/ limited edition of 10 – Images size 11″ x 11″ on a 50cm x50cm framed mount

Price: £120.00 each

Water

: Image 1. Boat study on the River Tweed

Although this image was worked on the same as all the others, it was taken with a toy camera. I placed some clear acetate sheet over the lens and then used a very tiny amount of Petroleum jelly around the edges of the lens leaving only a small clear area to focus.

: Image 2. Breakwater Lighthouse Berwick-upon-Tweed

: Lifeboat Station on the River Tweed

: Image 4. Remnants of industry

: Image 5. Days End. Fishing boat moored on the River Tweed

This image was also taken with a toy camera and created the same as image 1.

Land

: Image 6. Frosty morning graze (Near Coldstream)

: Image 7. Tree study in the snow (near Kelso)

: Image 8. Solitary Hawthorn

: Image 9. Above the A1

Another toy camera image. This time I just simply breathed on the lens first before shooting.

: Image 10. Remains of the day

I really enjoyed working on this exhibition, A lot of my time was spent working on the images but when I framed them and could see how they looked it was all worth it. Some will like it some will not but at the end of the day it was all about how I was feeling within the landscape and how I wanted the end result to turn out.

All my images are printed using the highest quality media and pigment inks. Embossed, numbered and signed under the mount. Some of the Embossing can be seen appearing into the image at the botton right hand corner of each final print.