Country Pick / 2017 / /

Echoes and Illusions

These photographs are intended to engage the viewers subconscious. They are highly
coloured and richly textured. The internal mirroring, using the “Rorschach” effect, can
appear strange and beautiful, or bizarre and disturbing.

Since Leonardo de Vinci and Botticelli in the renaissance, “ambiguous designs” have been
used to assess personality. And in 1921 Rorschach created the standardized inkblot test.
There are ten official blots of near-perfect bilateral symmetry.

Rorschach inkblots have been widely used to study the individual’s phycology, imagination,
consciousness, personality and mental health of both children and adults. The analysis of
inkblot tests is hugely complex and also controversial. But the enduring fascination is
how the same shapes produce such different responses and interpretations in each individual.

Layering details from 17th Baroque painting, and my own still life photographs, these
surreal juxtapositions are created, and strangeness appears in the spaces in-between.

Recent Solo Exhibitions
2021 - Wanton Boys - Chelsea Arts Club
2021 - Strange Shadows - Putney Gallery
2017 - Looking on Darkness - Viewfinder Gallery
2016 - Scenes of Deceit - Chelsea Arts Club
2013 - Strange Fruit - The Art Gallery Wales
2011 - Thinking makes it so - Aldeburgh
2010 - Beautiful and Damned - Hoxton Gallery
2010 - Strange Shadows - Association of Photographers Gallery
2010 - Phantoms of Delight - Archer's Soho
2008 - It’s Your Turn - Chelsea Gallery
2006 - Becoming - Chelsea Gallery
2005 - Silent Lives - Blue Room Soho
2003 - No Such Thing - Chelsea Gallery

Awards AWARDS
2023 - Julia Margaret Cameron Awards - Finalist
2023 - PX3 – International Paris Photo Prize – Finalist
2023 - International Color Awards – Finalist
2022 - International Spider Black and White Awards – Finalist
2022 - IPA International Photography Awards - Finalist
2022 - Julia Margaret Cameron Awards - Finalist
2022 - Monovisions Awards – Finalist
2021 - IPA - Finalist
2021 - International Color Awards - Finalist
2021 - Julia Margaret Cameron Awards- Finalist
2021 - Monovisions Awards – Finalist
2021 - International Spider- Finalist
2021 - PX3 - Finalist
2020 - BJP Female in Focus - Winner
2020 - IPA International Photography Awards - Finalist
2020 - International Color Awards - Finalist
2019 - IPA- International Photography Awards - Finalist
2018 - International Color Awards - Winner
2017 - IPA - International Photography Awards - Finalist
2017 - PX3 International Paris Photo Prize - Winner
2016 - PX3 International Paris Photo Prize - Winner
2015 - Renaissance Photography Prize Finalist
2015 - IPA International Photography Awards - Winner
2015 - Pink Lady food photographer - Finalist
2011 - Arles International Open Competition - Finalist
2010 - PX3 International Paris Photo Prize - Winner
2010 - Vermont International Self Portraiture Competition
2009 - Plates to Pixels International Competition - Winner
2009 - Terry O'Neill Award Competition - Finalist
2009 - LPA Documentary Competition - Finalist
2009 - Photo8 - Finalist
2008 - AOP Red Dot Exhibition
2008 - AOP Polaroid Retrospective
2008 - LPA Portrait Competition - Finalist
2007 - Royal Photographic Society International Competition
- Gold Medal -The Overall Winner
2007 - EMAP Shots - Finalist
2007 - Artoteque - Distinction
2006 - AOP Capture Competition Finalist
2005 - AOP Open - Finalist
2004 - AOP Open - Finalist
2003 - NPG Self Portrait UK Finalist
2002 - Kobal [now Taylor Wessing] Portrait Prize - Finalist