Guy Paterson
Reducing photography to its purest form, this course encourages particpants to engage with the rudimentary physical action of light and chemicals on a two dimensional surface.These simple parameters enable a fertile and stimulating crossover between photography, painting, printmaking and graphics. Using the black and white wet darkroom as a base, a series of simple techniques will be introduced and you are given maximum time to explore their creative agendas. Working within these parameters a surprisingly stimulating and engaging workflow arises. Areas explored are: Photograms - dramatic shadow pictures exploring composition and the interaction of two and three dimensional space. Contact printing - the inversion of the tones of the image often allows an extra dimension. Painting with light - torches are used to control the action of light. Chemigrams - applying chemistry locally to influence development. Photo-batik - using handcream on the paper to protect local areas from chemistry. Sun Pictures - you are shown that a great deal of this graphic activity can take place outside the darkroom and how conventional black and white paper can yield a surprising amount of subtle, beautiful colours.

Guy Paterson is a print maker and public artist. He studied fine art at Central Saint Martins. Should you wish to find out more about his work, visit Guy's website at www.guy-paterson.co.uk