Artist Blog 11/02

Double Yellow Lines, 1414x400mm, Digital Print of Film Composite, Martin Wilson

Modern Art, 3355x455 mm, Digital Print of Film Composite, Martin Wilson

Look Both Ways, 504x595mm, Digital Print of Film Composite, Martin Wilson

I had difficult time finding information about Martin Wilson. His work is featured on a ton of blogs, but unfortunately not much information accompanies his images aside from a brief summary and a few sentences quoted from his website, which also gives little away.

Martin Wilson is a photographer (I’d consider him more of a graphic artist) based in London. His images are taken with 35mm film in a painstaking sequence that document his travels or quick lunch-time walks that are later scanned and made into contact sheets on the computer. It is important to understand that his images are very greatly organized and that no Photoshop trickery is involved. His images are taken consecutively and it is not until the film is scanned and the strips are laid out side by side to make a contact sheet that the final image appears. His final images are mostly text that somehow relate to the subject matter of his images. What I find most interesting about Wilson’s process is that if he makes a mistake he begins the film again from the beginning.

“The works are all records of real journeys, the visual remnants of hours walking or cycling round town, bringing to life the unheard voices of the city.”

He explains that he has developed his habit of obsessively taking photographs from his father who always told him to “make every picture count” and that-by displaying the whole film, showcasing each negative frame-he is subconsciously trying to prove to his father that he has followed his advice and hasn’t wasted one shot.

In the one article I did manage to find, Wilson talks about his process in his piece Modern Art, which the final image reads “Modern Art is Rubbish,” and each frame, appropriately, is a photograph of rubbish. He also discusses the idea of consuming the contents of every potato chip bag, fast food wrapper and beer can he has photographed (I assume he’s at least half joking...), though it would be interesting to think about what that inclusion to his process would further suggest about his work, however disgusting.

While my artwork is not nearly as painstaking in its process, I do enjoy the relation of taking photographs in a sequence to make one larger image; each frame in Wilson’s work is imperative to making his final piece, just as each frame showing the gradual swing of focus is important to mine. I think there is the same level of interest in examining each frame individually and just as obvious a narrative between my work and his. Lastly, I’m interested in the idea that while each frame makes up one larger image or composition in Wilson’s work, though a more obvious statement, the undulating focus and position of the moth in my images could also make up one larger composition.

Martin Wilson Website

Greenbelt Feature