Z cyklu „People Make Things”


Cath Cartman

Norwich

Wielka Brytania – UK



People Make Things is a series of pinhole self-portraits shot on large format orthochromatic film. Placing myself at the centre of the narrative, I use long exposure times to access repressed memory and unprocessed experience. Through a combination of time and the unique sensitivity of the photographic materials a „spirit” version of me comes into focus as control is relinquished, buried perceptions are unlocked and that which is hidden reveals itself.

With a visual language that is deliberately indistinct, the project references the ghosts and hidden mothers of nineteenth century photography and writers of the female gothic who use the supernatural to talk about domesticity, desire and their search for autonomy.


I am a photographer working with early and alternative processes: cameraless techniques that require direct contact with photographic and archive materials, and pinhole and large format portraiture. I use photography to better understand my experiences of gender, relationships and family legacy, and to find points of connection with others.

Selected Projects:
People Make Things, 2018-2019:

*200 pinhole self-portraits made on large format orthochromatic film. Shown as part of Time to Think, Festival Pil’Ours, Saint Gilles Croix de Vie.

The Thing Itself, 2019-ongoing:

*201 large format portraits shot on photographic paper. Shown as part of the Postcards from Great Britain project, Haarlem and others.

Doing Some Hard Talking, 2020:

*202 mixed alternative process images made in the darkroom using archive photographs. To be exhibited as part of Shutterhub Open, 2021.

I am also a community learning tutor, access support professional and MA student on the Victorian Gothic at Portsmouth University, where I am researching Victorian Photography, the haunted camera and the body and the archive
With a visual language that is deliberately indistinct, the project references the ghosts and hidden mothers of nineteenth century photography and writers of the female gothic who use the supernatural to talk about domesticity, desire and their search for autonomy.