October 7, 2022 |
Erected in collaboration with Cob Gallery, Jack Davison’s debut exhibition on UK soil is the latest riveting retrospective we won’t be missing. That’s because from now until November 12, 2022, the exhibition, dubbed Photographic Etchings, brings together over 33 original works selected from the celebrated British photographer’s black and white archive – all of which have been traditionally hand-printed in London by Davison himself using a Polymer Intaglio technique. The works are also editioned across three varying sizes with each including available artist proofs so if you’re keen, you can bring his musings back to your boudoir.
Davison first discovered and developed his skills as a youngin snapping serendipitous pictures in the Essex countryside where he grew up and his particular persuasion was moulded by the formative and all-the-rage space of free-thinking digital Y2K platforms like Flickr and Tumblr. Rooted in the borrowing practices of internet communities, a diverse range of genres, styles and techniques spanning from early 20th-century avant-garde experiment to objective documentary, portraiture and conceptual study are concocted in his work.
As an autodidact photographer with no formal training, his canon is rather impressive. To date, he’s published a solo photographical book and his work has been spotlighted by The New York Times Magazine, M Le Monde, Luncheon, Double, i-D, Vogue Italia and British Vogue. He has also lensed megastars from the likes of Brad Pitt and Isabelle Huppert to Denzel Washington and Scarlett Johannson, among others. He has even worked with a plethora of banging fashion labels including Alexander McQueen, Hermès, Burberry, Craig Green, Marni and Moncler.
“I love photography for its ability to be playful and free, for the moments of spontaneity that are uncontrolled – and which create something far greater than the sum of its parts,” Davison explains. “Most of my favourite images have been serendipitous accidents, a collision of random elements producing a harmonious compound.”
Working with both analogue and digital cameras, the London-based image-maker’s boldly experimental approach prompts him to uncover the surreal and the sensual in the fabric of the everyday. His playful and curious approach to composition sets him apart, too. By engaging with methods of chiaroscuro, tight framing, and exposure as instruments of abstraction to obscure and reveal his subjects, Davison’s dissolving mirages depict an intuitive, complex and soulful interpretation of the world through enigmatic portraits, landscapes and still lives. See you there?
Photography courtesy of Cob Gallery x Jack Davidson.
