When digital photography became readily available, its ability to easily breakdown an image into elemental layers opened a Pandora’s box of possibility for artistic photographers. With today’s technology, any image can be manipulated into layers and integrated into other images, seamlessly creating a composite that is not always easily discernible as such an image. Contemporary photographic practice today is peppered with artists that experiment with layering in their work and British born, Idris Khan (b.1978) draws from a diverse range of cultural resources to create his unique form of art.Khan is known for exploring digital layers within his images and has conducted various layered projects during his short career (at the time of writing Khan is 39yrs old) however, his work ‘Every … Bernd and Hilla Becher …” explores the projects conducted by this famed ‘typology’ duo, whereby he digitally layers multiple superimposed images to produce the effect of an impressionistic drawing or blurred film still rather than the Straight Photographic style originally created by the Becher’s. This is a fascinating interpretation of the Becher’s work and something that intrigues me given that they were the inspiration behind one of my own photography projects undertaken last year.
Using a combination of found images which he re-photographs, Khan’s fundamental interest lies in exploring hidden details within lines of text however, he has expanded this to explore the lines found within structures, including some of the work created by the Becher’s during the 20th-century. Of this project Khan explains;
“I [re]photographed every single gas-holder or factory they [the Becher’s] had photographed, I loved it. Their photographs were very cold, but as I worked on them, they began to look different, like drawings in charcoal.”
(Khan 2015)
Khan does not consider himself a photographer, the camera is simply a tool he turns too to create some of his projects, some of which include sculptures, scanning, video presentations and various other installations. When Khan does use photography, you would be forgiven for not realising that the photographs were not photographs at all, as they look more like hand-drawn pencil or charcoal creations with smudgy black marks and dissolved black lines; composites built from layer upon layer of similar images.
Being introduced to Khan through our coursework, I was instantly enthralled, to the point that for a recent exercise I used his method to create my own layered image from a stock of photographs I had taken last year [link]. In the past, I had thought that digital layering was used to mask, omit and insert elements to a photograph in order to change it to be something different to what it originally was however, the work of Khan (and Corinne Vionnet) has given me a different outlook on this processing technique.
As a viewer of art, I am usually drawn to the clean lines and rendered detail of straight photography however, there is something truly compelling with Khan’s layered imagery. Perhaps it is that fact that every image of a Spherical type Gasholder taken by the Becher’s can be seen together in one place, or perhaps it is the mystical sense of place you see when looking at these images. I am not sure exactly why I am drawn to these type of image, but I am certain that I will explore this method further in my own photography.
Reference:
Khan, I. (2015) cited in: Cartwright, J. (2015) Idris Khan: blurred lines [online article]. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/may/04/idris-khan-artist-interview-blurred-lines-photographs-sculpture [Accessed 5 December 2017].
Bibliography:
Cartwright, J. (2015) Idris Khan: blurred lines [online article]. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/may/04/idris-khan-artist-interview-blurred-lines-photographs-sculpture [Accessed 5 December 2017].
DDCMS. (2013) Idris Khan in Dublin [online article]. Available at: http://www.gac.culture.gov.uk/720.html [Accessed 5 December 2017].
Victoria Miro Gallery (n.d.) Idris Khan [online article]. Available at: https://www.victoria-miro.com/artists/14-idris-khan/ [Accessed 5 December 2017].
Saatchi Gallery. (n.d.) Idris Khan [online article/gallery]. Available at: http://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/idris_khan.htm [Accessed 5 December 2017].
Sherwin, D. (2010) Artist of the week 80: Idris Khan [online article]. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/mar/25/artist-idris-khan [Accessed 5 December 2017].
Photography 2: Digital Image and Culture 