He’s directed music videos for Kanye West and Lady Gaga, shot ad campaigns for Christian Dior, Tom Ford and Yves Saint Laurent, produced award-winning editorial for British Vogue. Now fashion photographer Nick Knight turns his lens on something different: roses from his own London garden. In a new exhibition running this summer at Albion Barn in Oxfordshire, two still life series will be on display: Photo Paintings and Roses from My Garden.
Inspired by 17th century still life paintings, the Rose Photo Paintings have been created using a new technique where Knight introduces heat and water during the printing process to encourage the inks to run across the print. This dynamic process has taken him and master-printer Allan Finamore ten years to perfect and the result is half-photograph, half-painting to reveal the fleeting beauty of a rose in full bloom.
In Roses from my Garden the images are simple; the flowers have literally been plucked from the garden and shot in daylight. There are bruised petals, broken stems and petals breaking from their buds – evidence of the beauty and fragility of nature. And what better setting for this large-scale show than contemporary gallery space, Albion Barn in the Cotswolds.
The exhibition is appointment only so you’ll need to email carolina@albionbarn.com to arrange a visit. A catalogue, with a forward by Primal Scream’s Bobbie Gillespie and interview between Nick Knight and Michael Hue-Williams, accompanies the exhibition.
