This blog dies here...

Long live something else www.instagram.com/ayoungson

Lost Light

I lit this image by walking through the composition with a torch that was shielded from the camera’s lens. During the 8 minute exposure, light gradually accumulated on the surface but I, because I kept moving, remain invisible.

In making this piece I was aware that I was drawing with light – just as later, when areas of visible torchlight were removed in post-production, I was drawing with darkness. This methodology links directly to my process of working with traces and landscapes of absence.

This location and lighting technique will form the foundation of the image I intend to use in my final show. Central to the concept of the installation is the fact that light (from the projector) is being used to present darkness.

With reference to the camera obscura the space in which the projection will take place is to be blacked out and the light from the projector will enter from outside via an aperture cut into the wall.

I'm very please to have been part of Photofusion's SALON/15 and also for beening one of the SELECT winners with this image from my series Fin del Mundo.

Recent portrait: Professor Marzia Malcangio

I was recently commissioned by King's College to photograph Professor Marzia Malcangio. This was shot at her London office as part of KCL's Inspiring Women series.

Subterraneans

Ahead of my return to Berlin this September I wanted to post a behind the scenes/comparison photograph from Subterraneans: a series of photographs I've been working on that relate to Berlin's legacy of Second World War-era unexploded ordnance. I have been photographing trees growing on or near the city's former bombsites because their shapes suggest not only past explosions but – due to time-delay fuses – explosions potentially yet to happen. The above photograph is the result of over one hundred exposures, taken over the course of a day and layered in-camera onto single negative. The top photograph I took with my iPhone in order to geotag the location.

Spectra

Spectra - Ryoji Ikeda's installation commemorating the centenary of Britain's involvement in The First World War - photographed last night from Lambeth Bridge.

Gaza Protest

A short edit from the Gaza protest that I photographed in London last Saturday.

Portrait: Valeria Cherchi

An outtake from back in March when I photographed Valeria Cherchi for The Swap. The location was a Second World War-era acoustic mirror atop a blustery cliff near Folkestone.

Recent portrait: Ben Stonard Fine Furniture

A portrait from back in March when I had the pleasure of photographing Ben Stonard of Ben Stonard Fine Furniture at his Surrey workshop. The sun was out so this was lit with just a skylight.

Recent portrait: Frances Fitzgerald

A portrait of Frances Fitzgerald, Ireland's Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, taken during the recent State Visit by Irish President Michael D. Higgins.