Photographer #408: Stephen Gill

Stephen Gill, 1971, UK, is an experimental, conceptual and documentary photographer. In 2005 he founded his publishing company in order to gain maximum control over the publication process of his books. He has released an impressive amount of books. For him a book is not merely a vessel or a shell in which to house and show his photographs, it should be the finished expression of the images. Various techniques are used as cut printing, spray paint or rubber stamps are used to what he considers "the key final stage in the production of his photographic works." The images for the series Outside In were made in Brighton where he featured objects found in the local surroundings that he literally put inside of his camera and started making images of street sceneries. To finish the images he used a magnifying glass to concentrate the sunlight onto some of the negatives in order to create markings. Other negatives were dipped into the sea hoping that the finished series would become something like the regurgitated contents of a giant vacuum cleaner. For his series Billboards he photographed the backsides of these large objects taking us to strange places that are normally hidden from our point of view. His work has been exhibited extensively throughout the world. The following images come from the series Outside In, Billboards and Hackney Flowers.

Website: www.stephengill.co.uk