Bristol and Glastonbury in High Resolution

From top: In Re Ansel Adams, The Unfurling and Portraits of Glastonbury Tor © Terry Flaxton

Press release issued: 19 September 2008

Remarkable images of Bristol, Glastonbury, Venice and Yosemite National Park shot by Terry Flaxton, a cinematographer and Creative Research Fellow at Bristol University, will be exhibited in Bristol and Glastonbury this month.

The installations and single screen works were shot by Terry on an ultra high resolution Red 4k Camera during his first year as an AHRC Creative Research Fellow in High Resolution Imaging at Bristol University.

Four installations will be showing from Monday 22 September to Thursday 25 September, 5.30 - 8pm at the University’s Department of Drama, Cantocks Close. (Free Admission.)

Portraits of Glastonbury Tor (Mon 22nd) is in the tradition of photographic portraiture led by Edward S. Curtis, Walker Evans, Diane Arbus and Robert Maplethorpe. In the foreground of the projection are life-size images of various notable people from around Glastonbury including Hubert Watkins, 85, on his tractor with his daughter, 65, nearby, Ray Loxton the local gravedigger, and Mike Tamblyn, coalman and carnival float maker, each standing like a turn-of-the-19th-century photographic subject.

Un Tempo, Una Volta (Tues 23rd) was shot in Venice. The camera, placed on its back looking up at the sky, passes underneath the bridges on a gondola, seeing the sky and the tops of buildings at dusk.

The Unfurling (Weds 24th) was shot in Bristol. Noticing a child sleeping on a granite ledge in the sun, then unfurling from a tight embryonic shape prompted Terry to shoot the same on a high speed camera called the Phantom. Projected onto a simulacrum of a granite boulder within the exhibition space, the unfurling that took ten seconds is played out over 30 minutes.

In Re Ansel Adams (Thurs 25th) was inspired by the work of the great American photographer of the natural world, Ansel Adams. It was shot on the spot where Adams took one of his most famous photographs, Yosemite Valley, Winter, 1940, re-creating the scene - with one important difference. At the beginning of the piece, the image is in extreme close-up with only pixels and digital artefacts on screen; slowly the full picture begins to emerge and resolve up to standard levels of resolution, then beyond into high definition.

Terry Flaxton said: “These pieces are all loosely connected by the search for the 'photographic moment', a proposition by the great cinematographer Conrad Hall, that in every shot of every moving image sequence there should be a photographic moment within the onward stream of images.

“These pieces are equally connected by an exploration of the immersive possibilities of high resolution images and its attendant performative response by the viewers of the work, the audience.”

There will also be window display of In Re Ansel Adams at Gallery 204 (204 Gloucester Road) on Friday 26 September and a showing and discussion of the work on Saturday 27th September at 8.30pm. Free Admission.

Terry’s portraits of Glastonbury Tor will be showing daily from Tuesday 16 September to Sunday 21 September at the Somerset Rural Life Museum (Tuesday to Friday from 10.00am to 5.00pm, Saturday and Sunday 2.00pm to 6.00pm). Free Admission.

Three new HD Installations will also be exhibited at the Phoenix Project in Glastonbury from Thursday 18 September to Saturday 20 September, 8pm - 11pm. They are ‘Dance Floor’ (18th), ‘The Unfurling’ (19th) and ‘Water Table’ (20th). Free Admission.