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Sublunary - Alien Invasion of Planet Earth

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Fine Art Photography meets Visual Stories

Sublunary - Part 2

As a professional photographer, Father to the most beautiful little toddler in the world and Husband to an equally beautiful Mother; I find it difficult to get out and make personal work.

In 2017, I graduated from University with a High 2:1 in a BA Hons in Photography & Video degree at De Montfort University, where the idea for this project was born.  I began with a long period of time in the library, scouring art books and photographic archives, learning about who, what where, when, why and how specific bodies of work was made.

Surprisingly, I came across some painters and other Fine Art Photographers that worked in similar fields to my research.  One in particular that sticks out in my mind was Photographer Erasmus Schroeter and Painter Max Ernst.

Erasmus Schroeter (2005).

Max Ernst, (N.D.)

I was also heavily inspired by my lecturer (Kosovan) Lala Meredith-Vula who is a contemporary fine art photographer with international recognition.  Lala's ideas about my work and how to get the best out of me was first class and Lala's self confessed crazy mind was a perfect match for the project I had stuck in my head.  She knew just how to get me excited about my own work.

Lala Meredith-Vula

Lala Meredith-Vula

Lala Meredith-Vula (N.D.)

Lala Meredith-Vula (N.D.)

So the body of work for Sublunary began.  I created a series of landscape photographs that followed the narrative of an imaginary alien invasion of the planet Earth.  A tall order you might think?  I just needed the right level of inspiration and a camera.  At the end of creating the work for my degree, I put it all together in a short movie with a spooky sound track that I created myself.  You can watch that below.

I'm now about to embark on a much longer journey that will see me creating a whole new body of work for Sublunary Part 2.  I'll be using my experiences from the first part of the project and will be digging deeper in to my imagination.

Here's a sneaky peek at my first experiment for part 2...

Paul Hands (2018), The Mute.

This is called 'The Mute' and features a landscape photograph that has been manipulated in camera by myself.  I added the red light using the brake lights on my car and chose this location for the crazy tree that could be morphed in to any kind of other worldly creature.  The reverse side of the road sign represents having nothing to say, to be muted and to be stunned by the experience of an alien invasion.  You will see that I've also added a strange shaped metal frame on the right.  This represents an alien being and is the shape of a large humanoid or key hole.  It is hollow and appears invisible with the exception of the outer edges.

The scene is lit like a stage as if the play is being carried out and has undertones of humour, not to be taken seriously.  It's a project that I can literally play and have fun with.  I have a list of locations, that I've been building, so you can watch to see how this develops.

De Montfort University bought the first 5 prints of this project and hold them in their permanent art collection on campus.  You can also read more about this project here.

If you'd like to follow my work then you can subscribe to my emails (below) or follow my social media channels.

Futuristic Art in Landscape Photography

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I'm in the process of creating a 9 month long body of work for my Bachelor of Arts degree at De Montfort University and in preparation for an exhibition at Freerange, an Old Truman Brewery in London.

I've spent quite a bit of time with the paintings of the German Max Ernst (1891-1976).  This body of work is heavily influenced by some of his works, like this example below.

Max Ernst

As well as the german photographer Erasmus Schroeter (below), known for illuminating nazi war bunkers and putting such tragedy up on the stage for an audience.

I've taken a blend of what these artists have created and been playful with my camera and mind.

The intention behind my work is to almost create a new category of photography; Futuristic escapism within landscape photography and by using nothing but what is available in the environment and with zero impact upon the landscape.  

I'm creating a series of fine art sculptural photographs that herald the subjects at night against dramatic skies and using light to make the scene almost like a theatrical stage for the presentation of the subjects.

My plan for this work is to create a wooden light box from mostly reclaimed materials and to display the work backlit.

Here's a sneak peek at some of the imagery that I've been producing, please feel free to add comments on my work, good or bad.  After all, I'm in the process of making this long body of work and could use your thoughts?

You can comment here and also on my Facebook page.  Please don't pass by without leaving a comment, they really are appreciated.

Paul Hands

November Film and Photography

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I've got a very busy month coming in November.  

I'm finalising the editing of the film for R-Tech Performance.  We've got a few days of filming left where I'll be interviewing Ben from R-Tech about their amazing company and how they've helped to create a culture around re-mapping cars to go faster.  The film so far, follows some of their customers while they test drive their cars after being re-mapped.  We've also been to Santa Pod Race Circuit to witness R-Tech's customers testing their cars on the 1/4 mile track.  We also have a rolling road day coming up at R-Tech's unit in Hinckley, where we'll be documenting with moving image.

During November, I'll be working with SSAFA again.  They have a special event on where families of fallen and injured military personnel gather in remembrance and to find support from one another.  I'll be creating a documentary series of photographs around the event for use on the website, on social media and to be printed within their help leaflets.  The next event is happening in Nottingham

I've also been out making personal photographs for projects that I'm currently working on.

 

Click on images to enlarge.

This image is part of a year long project called Rockets.  I'm currently in search of human constructions that resemble rockets and juxtaposing them against the night sky.

The above set of four photographs are all considerations to become part of a series of pictures that tell a metaphorical story.  They're all colourful sculptural protrusions from the Earth.  This is still a work in progress and will culminate with an exhibition at Free Range in the Old Truman Brewery, London in 2017.

I've also been out and collected some cheesy landscape photographs of the recent Super-moon as it hovered and rose above Hinckley.

So November is and has been a very busy month for me.  On top of all of this, I'm decorating my house from top to bottom.  This is of course in line with the amazing news that I'm going to be a Father.  So I have to get my house ready for my beautiful Daughter to arrive in January.

I'm still currently working and taking on new and exciting projects.  I've got many enquiries coming in for commercial photography jobs and a couple of commercial films to do quotes for.  If you have any assignments where you'll need a professional photographer, filmmaker or videographer, then please click here to go to my contact page and drop me a line.