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Walter Hugo

Reflecting The Bright Lights

Offerings a unique twenty-first century insight into nineteenth-century photographic methods, artist Walter Hugo captures portraits of a new generation of London's creative leaders via a giant 'camera obscura', fixes them in silver nitrate and develops on glass plate - a 'positive' rather than a 'negative', and each a true one-off. His methods and artworks are shown here in image and film.

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  • Walter Hugo
    Reflecting The Bright Lights; Capturing a Moment with Silver Nitrate, 2011
    £7,500 (Excludes VAT)

About

Artist Walter Hugo's work deviates from the standard photographic fayre: reviving a technique from photography's inception in the Victorian era, Hugo coats, exposes and fixes his silver nitrate portraits on plates of glass, captured through a gigantic camera obscura painstaking assembled for each photographic session. In May 2011, SHOWstudio invited Hugo to work in-house at our LiveStudio to continue his series Reflecting the Bright Lights: Capturing A Moment In Silver Nitrate, shooting portraits of Hugo's choice of contemporary London's great and good and simultaneously offering a digital-age window onto Dickensian photographic techniques.

Sitters during this one-day broadcast included model Alice Dellal, filmmaker Ruth Hogben, fashion designer Mary Katrantzou, actor Eddie Redmayne and SHOWstudio founder and director Nick Knight - all showcased in a portrait gallery documenting the glass-plate 'Positive' every sitter.

Taken from the live stream footage captured over Hugo's residency, this film offers a unique twenty-first century insight into nineteenth-century photographic methods as the artist captures portraits of a new generation of London's creative leaders via a giant 'camera obscura', fixes them in nitrate and develops on glass - the entire process from conception to completion showcased here.

Credits / Contributors

  • Walter Hugo Walter Hugo
    Artist
  • Concept: Carrie Scott, Walter Hugo and Zoniel
  • Artist: Walter Hugo
  • Artist Assistance: Lydia Garnet, Amelia Karlsen
  • Carpentry: Mycroft Pembroke
  • Camera: Zoe Hitchen, Stella Marina
  • Production: Carrie Scott, Amy Ireland
  • Technical Supervision: Neal Bryant
  • Technical Assistance: Jon Emmony
  • Studio Assistance: Ashley Sherrard
  • Special Thanks to James Reese, Tim Hill and James Finnigan

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