PELICAN PORTRAITS

Working in collaboration with artist George Barron and The Pelican Project at Positive Light Projects we create a series of portraits celebrating the diversity and personality of the group as part of a public arts commission to be displayed in the empty windows of the old Debenhams building in Exeter.

The project started by captuirng photographic portraits with a custom 8x10” large format camera I built, designed to be operated by people with diverse physical and mental abilities.

These portraits were then printed in our new darkroom and worked into with various processes including collage, painting and screen printing, bringing them to life with colour, humour, and variety, allowing the group to guide and lead the process.

The aim was to challenge the preconceptions of what a photographer and artist is and can be, and to create a series of self portraits of people rarely given a platform to be seen from publicly. The project was funded by Exeetr City Council.