Biography
I am a London based photographer and visual artist. The majority of my practice is photographic, a medium that I’ve held in high regard since schooldays, for its ability to combine both art and science and with its potential to employ technologies that can create images which go beyond our ability to see or even imagine.
I have a degree in Graphic Design from Coventry University and a Post-Grad Certificate from Central St. Martins College of Art. Creative and scientifically curious both by nature and professionally, I worked for many years as a graphic designer and photographer in business to business branding, marketing and healthcare sectors, as well as several years in the NHS as a medical photographer and Illustrator.
Visually I have always been drawn to patterns, texture and abstraction, which frequently feature in my work and are created using my favourite macro and telephoto lenses. I also create abstract works based on transforming purely figurative and familiar themes using alternative viewpoints, symmetry and other specifically computer-based techniques.
Often employing a detailed graphic style, I use photomontage and collage techniques, integrating other media such as pen and ink line drawings into my pictures. I am highly adept in the use of Adobe Illustrator to produce vectorised illustrations based on pen and ink originals and love its crispness of line, similar to the Rotring pen technical drawings I produced at school.
I have used Photoshop professionally for many years as well as both high-end* digital and film cameras, including medium format. I am a member of the Brixton-based Photofusion social photographic collective, and have used their traditional darkroom facilities and tuition to explore the alchemical side of the craft, especially the use of cyanotype, salt-printing and wet-plate collodion techniques.
My work has been purchased by corporate buyers, including Clerical Medical and Loncraine Broxton, as well by the Institute of Physics and the October Gallery, and is available from Gettyimages*. It has also been featured in numerous exhibitions, including London’s Photomonth, TBWA Advertising and The Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf.
Inspiration comes mainly from the pioneering work of Alexander Rodchenko, László Moholy-Nagy, Hannah Höch, Stanley Kubrick, Garry Fabien Miller, Eduardo Paolozzi and John Heartfield.
Thank you for looking at the site, and I hope you enjoy what you see.
All pictures © Duncan Godfrey 2023