Hackney has long fascinated the British photographer Stephen Gill. The northeast London borough is a bric-a-brac medley of concrete, brick, roof extensions and pockets of nature. It is, in some ways, beautiful in its ugliness – but nowhere more so than in Gill’s kaleidoscopic, collage-like studies of the area.
The artist's recently opened selling exhibition at The Photographers’ Gallery in London brings together a selection of Gill’s photobooks, alongside over twenty framed prints from six series: ‘Hackney Flowers’ (2003- 2007); ‘Buried’ (2004-2007); ‘Co-existence’ (2009-2010); ‘Talking to Ants’ (2009- 2013); ‘Hackney Kisses’ (2012); and ‘Best Before End’ (2013).
Born in Bristol in 1971, Gill fell into photography at a young age. His father was himself an avid photographer who taught him to print at home in a makeshift darkroom. Gill was also fascinated by insects, and collected specimens of pond life to inspect under a microscope. This innate curiosity in nature has been at the centre of his practice ever since, evident in the experimental quality of his images.
Like a (mad) scientist, Gill tinkers with Hackney as though it were a test subject - refreshingly, he achieves his effects in-camera or during the developing process. This includes part-processing negatives in energy drinks ('Best Before End'), leaving photographs to decompose in the ground ('Buried') and applying pond water during various stages ('Co-existence'). In ‘Talking to Ants’, meanwhile, the photographer places insects, foliage, dust and debris directly into the body of the camera.
‘Hackney is a place that attracts obsessives,’ the photographer once said. ‘It's something to do with its contradictions: you can be in a beautiful spot with canals and meadows, and then the flipside is chaos and dirt.’ Gill's photographs encompass this duality with harmony.
The northeast London borough is a bric-a-brac medley of concrete, brick, roof extensions and pockets of nature. Pictured: Untitled, from the series ’Hackney Flowers’, 2007
Born in Bristol in 1971, Gill fell into photography at a young age. His father was himself an avid photographer who taught him to print at home in a makeshift darkroom. Pictured: Untitled, from the series ’Buried’, 2007
Untitled, from the series ’Hackney Kisses’
Gill was also fascinated by insects, and collected specimens of pond life to inspect under a microscope. Pictured: Untitled, from the series ’Talking to Ants’, 2013
This innate curiosity in nature has been at the centre of his practice ever since, evident in the experimental quality of his images. Pictured: Untitled, from the series ’Talking to Ants’, 2013
Like a (mad) scientist, Gill tinkers with Hackney as though it were a test subject. Pictured: Untitled, from the series ’Coexistence’, 2010
Gill’s techniquea include part-processing negatives in energy drinks, as seen here. Pictured: Organic Energy #3, from the series ’Best Before End’, 2013
Hackney, Gill explains, is a place of ’contradictions: you can be in a beautiful spot with canals and meadows, and then the flipside is chaos and dirt.’ Pictured: Survive & Revive, from the series ’Best Before End’, 2013
INFORMATION
‘Myeyefellout’ runs until 8 May. For more information, visit the Photographers’ Gallery website
Photography © Stephen Gill. Courtesy Christophe Guye Galerie
ADDRESS
16-18 Ramillies Street, London W1F
-
The Benjamin’s chic new upstairs bar is Hollywood’s hottest hideawayAt Bar Benjamin, speakeasy mystique meets elevated snacks, cocktails and views
-
Yancey Richardson gallery celebrates 30 years: 'It is all an honour and immensely rewarding'To mark this milestone, Richardson has asked the photographers she represents to curate a show of the ultimate subject — themselves
-
Design ni Dukaan’s new collection both revives and reimagines endangered Indian craftsBy using traditional aesthetics and methods in collaboration with their last living artisans, ‘Roop Aroop’ demonstrates how vernacular design can be both rooted and radical
-
Out of office: the Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the weekIt’s been another week of Wallpaper* being first through the door – visiting, sampling and reporting back on the freshest in art, design, beauty and more. Highlights included a new rental development, skincare residency and Edinburgh hotel…
-
Get the picture? A new exhibition explores the beautiful simplicity of Japanese pictogramsThe simple, minimalist forms of a pictogram are uniquely Japanese, as new exhibition 'Pictograms: Iconic Japanese Designs' illustrates
-
From Snapchat dysmorphia to looksmaxing, have digital beauty standards made us lose sight of what's real, asks a new exhibitionAI, social media and the ease with which we can tweak our face mean we're heading towards a dystopian beauty future, argues 'Virtual Beauty' at Somerset House
-
Take a rare peek inside eighties London's most famous clubFrom George Michael to Boy George, photographer David Koppel captured a who's who of celerities at Eighties nightclub Limelight
-
Thirty-five years after its creation, Lynn Hershman Leeson’s seminal video is as poignant as everLynn Hershman Leeson’s 'Desire Inc', at 243 Luz in Margate, blurs the boundaries between art and reality
-
Shop the gloriously mad inner workings of Gary Card’s brain in London’s SohoSet designer and artist Gary Card has taken over London's Plaster Store – expect chaos and some really good accessories
-
Meet the New York-based artists destabilising the boundaries of societyA new show in London presents seven young New York-based artists who are pushing against the borders between refined aesthetics and primal materiality
-
Leila Bartell’s cloudscapes are breezily distorted, a response to an evermore digital world‘Memory Fields’ is the London-based artist’s solo exhibition at Tristan Hoare Gallery (until 25 July 2025)
