Artist Michael John Hunter continues to experiment with scale through traditional camera optics and strategically-sized sculptures. He has spent over 5 years exploring and playing with the possibilities of bending the way we perceive objects and environments. In his own words he says 'My work revolves around perception and how we view our world through the use of imagery. I use a combination of scale and traditional camera optics as tools in my work.'
Doll: As I grow, I lose
Michael John Hunter
Two of his photo postcards comes from his series 'As I grow, I lose', an ongoing series of images depicting a "lost" or "dropped" child's doll. The project is about the seriousness of play that we experienced as children but then lost as we matured into adults. He makes the photos by creating giant sized sculptures of dolls and then placing them in obscure positions in an urban environment, then uses camera optics to skew our perception, so that the images look more like usual sized dolls positioned in tiny toy worlds. The outcome are eerie still lives that depict an obscure relationship between childhood-adulthood and also lost-found. These giant discarded dolls are reminders of our loss of playfulness, imagination and fun. Michael's concept is brilliantly self aware in that he himself is playing with the doll in new ways. As well as this he experiments with camera tricks and spaces, exploring the the artists own relationship with these themes and through his art seeing if he can retrace within him the childlike ability to create, imagine and play.
There's a 'making of' video which is absolutely stunning that you watch below. It gives such a fantastic insight into his creative process and it's remarkable to see how the piece comes together.
We are so pleased these impressive pieces will feature at our Photography on a Postcard exhibition in October. This is the outcome of dedication to the exploration of the possibilities of photography when the camera becomes even more of a toy than the dolls he photographs. If you would like the opportunity to exhibit next to Michael, as well as Martin Parr and Dougie Wallace go to http://bit.ly/2r0MUE4.
Doll: As I grow, I lose
Michael John Hunter
About the writer
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Rosa Torr has a BA in Politics and Philosophy from University College Dublin, though she herself is from London. Her place of interest is political theory and in particular Gender Studies. Rosa has written for numerous online publications and the University Observer. She is also a theatre maker and is currently co-artistic director of BUMP&GRIND Theatre Company. The show she co-wrote BUMP will be on at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this summer. |