Latitude Photographers Projects

Peter Ainsworth, Christian Alegria, Marc Burden, Manuel Capurso, Ania Dabrowska, Hannah Dakin, Ellie Davies, Caroline Furneaux, Vron Harris, Jochen Klein, Richard Kolker, Issa Randall, Rita Soromenho, Gillian Vaux

Latitude Photographers is a group of international artists working in London. We have developed out of a cooperative response to debates within contemporary photography. Defined by experimental enquiry, we are concerned with personal aesthetics and artistic intentions. We are particularly interested in participatory and collaborative work development.

Status Update (2011) ‘Right Here, Right Now’ Format International Photography Festival, Derby UK

Status Update is a project created with the images of Latitude Photographers’ Facebook friends. Presented as a revolving slideshow, images are juxtaposed with text status updates.

People join cyber communities for business and social networking yet little is really known of either party, personal information is given away freely but the nature of this exchange is not explicit. Authenticity of peoples profiles’ is debatable, and commonly acknowledged that it can fall into the realm of fantasy. Your presence is there to be found, in whatever form, and is often used for PR and marketing strategies. We are utilizing this engagement. Turning a passive marketing crowd into an active participatory audience. We are fascinated by the cultural and geographical diversity of this group and curious about what could have motivated them to be friends of Latitude. The artwork created will mirror the wall of latitude: a mass of disparate information that forms a strange and chaotically oblique narrative.

Images and Press Release [external link]

Technical Specifications:
3 screen slideshow

Opulence (2010) Alternative Arts Photo Space Gallery / Photomonth London, UK

Slice of Heaven evokes the sugar brought from the West Indies, Madeira and Azores or Brazil by the Portuguese. It's commerce funded the golden churches, the monasteries, the Baroque and Rococo. Precious as gold, Sugar was a backbone for the Empire and colonization. It was also essential to the conventual tradition of Portuguese Sweets, highly rich in sugar and eggs. Inspired by the refined taste and habits brought in the convents by noble girls, the devoted and laborious nun's creations became famous but well kept secrets. Slice of Heaven is the name of one of those recipes.

You Can't Polish a Turd But You Can Roll it in Glitter considers the hidden side of Opulence. The effects, the consequences. Commerce and wealth produce some magnificent works of art, but beyond their shine lies a darker reality. You Can't Polish a Turd...it's about the spectacle of art and celebrity culture, fabrication and make-believe.

More Images and Press Release [external link]

Technical Specifications:
Slice of Heaven, 2009
Lambda Print, 101 x 76 cm
Edition of 7 + 2AP's

You Can't Polish a Turd But You Can Roll it in Glitter, 2009
Lambda Print, Mounted on Aluminium, 41 x 28 cm
Edition of 7 + 2AP's

I always knew you’d come back…. (2009) ‘Format09, International Photography Festival, Derby, UK, 2009; Latitude Festival 2009, Suffolk, UK, Swanfield Yard Gallery/Photomonth, London

I always knew you’d come back…. was developed in consideration of cinematic cliché for the Format09, International Photography Festival, Derby, UK, 2009, which placed the relationship of cinema and photography as its overarching theme. Each of the artists from Latitude Photographers produced images in response to the theme, creating a portfolio of prints from which the visitors of the festival were encouraged to make their own edits, “storyboards” interpreting the ambiguous and cliché title of an imaginary film. Following the audience interaction at Format 09, the artists created three short films that combined edited audio extracts of peoples’ invented narratives with animated photographs chosen by them, and produced two part publication of the work. The group’s intention was to explore how the audience interacts with work and how the contrasts of their individual photographic styles may trigger an evolving narrative, where the boundaries between individual and collective authorship of the work are ultimately blurred.

More Images and Press Release [external link]

Technical Specifications:
I Always Knew You Would Come Back, 2009
Scannogram, Lambda Print Mounted on Aluminium
76 x 51 cm, Edition of 7 + 2 APs

Circles of Latitude (2008) Four Corners Gallery, London

Universal Exposure Meter (2008) was produced for the exhibition Circles of Latitude (2008) Four Corners Gallery, London reflects on how contemporary time and digital technology have changed the way many of us photograph and find their way around. The scannogram of this old light meter evokes not only the compass, but a time when both instruments meant slowness, a slower process, a pondered way of looking and decision making. Wandering and walking are creative elements of my working process. Subverting the fast rhythm and the contemporary logic of space, I find in these acts a pathway to uncertainty and surprise but also connection with the surroundings. The simultaneous reading of both scanner and light meter simulates this metaphorical interaction.

More Images and Press Release [external link]

Technical Specifications:
Scannogram, Lambda Print Mounted on Aluminium
70 x 100 cm, Edition of 7 + 2AP's