Statement of work
Lynne Collins began her career as a sculptor and for twenty years worked in the film and television industry as an artist and model maker. She went on to make short art films and then began to explore the medium of still photography. Lynne is a self taught photographic artist.
It is her experience of working on film sets as an adult and also her childhood memories of roaming Pinewood Studios while her mother, a set dresser and buyer in the film industry, was herself working on film set's that Lynne draws upon when making her photographs. Using abandoned Victorian buildings as her backdrop, Lynne superimposes a different image, often in complete contrast with her found location, to make a new narrative. In her series "On The Edge of Perception" Lynne brings together two images, one of a woodland, the other an abandoned asylum offering the possibility for nature to rejuvenate such forgotten places.
On The Edge of Perception series is drawn together by an urge to take people to environments that exist only Lynne's mind. Derelict decaying mental institutions and industrial buildings are transformed into places of strange beauty.
First and foremost the indoor locations are found and photographed. This can often be a tedius affair, as entry to the places she photograph's are often protected by heavy security. She does not always get permission to enter but onceshe hasmade u p her mind there is no stopping her
Once shot the interior images are studied on the computer. The geographical outdoor natural environment has then to be located. The lighting is important here and the woodland photographs have to be taken at the same time of day as the interior locations. Shadows have to fall in the correct place, ground level has to be the same, no hills or dips. Knowing what she wants from a location means it can sometimes take weeks if not months to find. She knows in her mind the type of trees she wants. In the case of this series the trees had to be straight and of a certain age to give power to the image.
In her series "The Trespasser" she has returned to the discarded spaces of derelict buildings and taking inspiration from the seventeenth century Dutch masters has overlaid these bleak interiors with sumptuous still life's of wine and food, which are also abandoned. By bringing these two scenes together Lynne is seeking to offer a commentary on modern life as one of over-consumption and decadent wastefulness.
Several of Lynne's Trespasser images can be purchased from Troika Editions an online gallery which showcases exciting and beautiful work by photographers with a pedigree.
Bridget Coaker is Curator and editor. of Troika Editions. More about Troika
Altered Land, A Memory
Taken in the Peak District National Park this series of images is a collective of the memories and images accumulated during long searching walks for the images that for Lynne most depict the beauty of the area. By blending images together Lynne is able to show the viewer several shots of an area in one image, conveying her memory of the walks, the light changes, the day to day speed of growth change. With gentle blending and colour painting the images become more the memory and less the photograph.
Night Walks
An ongoing series of work that takes Lynne to destinations that during the day look depressing and neglected, where industry destroys the land around it and has little concern for it’s environmental impact. Nuclear power stations dominate the coast line with gray crude exteriors and humming sounds that resonate the close vicinity.
To find a spot that’s reasonably safe to tread and wait until night time throws a black velvet blanket over these neglected uncared for spaces is lynne’s intention. Only the lights that shine unceasingly through the night are what she wants to photograph, for the unseen is a place you would not want to go to and these areas are left to the viewers imagination.
Burnt Rooms is about a personal fear. As a small child of 4 Seeing the flames from a chip pan reach the ceiling . At the age of 7 the hall of her boarding school set alight by an old upright parafin heater, knocked over by running children, the whole of the floor was alight and in flames in seconds.
None of the rooms photographed are in any way personal to Lynne but the fear is exorcized by the visit to sites that have almost burnt to the ground and a certain beauty has been found in the remnants of burnt timbers.
Exhibitions
The Troika Editions Collection.
'The Floor To Ceiling Show' The Front Room. 96 Farringdon Road. London. EC1R 3EA
11th August - 19th September 2010. Private view 10th August 6.00 - 9.00pm
Group show. Summer Exhibition at Bigger Picture Gallery. 2A Anerley Hill, Crystal Palace. London SE19 2AA www.biggerpicturegallery.co.uk
7th June - 31st August 2010
Group exhibition at The Portico Gallery Knights Hall, Knights Hill, West Norwood. London SE27 0HS.
Opens 3rd May - 15th May 2010.
April 2010 Artslant showcase winner
Solo Exhibition. 22 Gallery. 22 Peter Street. Soho. London. December - January 2009 / 2010
The Association of Photographers Awards. AOP Gallery London. August 2009
SHORTLISTED FOR THE SOVERIEGN EUROPEAN ART PRIZE 2008
Sovereign Art Prize. Somerset House. London. 2008
Shorditch House London. 2008
West of England Royal Academy. Bristol 2008
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. London. 2008
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. Londpon. 2007
Heathlands Exhibition Croydon Clock Tower 2006
Signals Art Event. London. 2006
Signals Art Event. London. 2005
Signals Art Event Crystal Palace Artists group. 2004
Earthscape Art Exhibition, Hastings
An artists view Exhibition, Hastings Gallery.
Group Exhibition, Hastings Old Town.
Picture Palace gallery, solo show. London
Cafe Lava. Solo show. London
Urban Art, Brixton.
The Brixton Ritzy (video)
Cafe Lava (video) London.
The John Price Film Club (video) London
Schimatizo Film event (video)
Publications..
The Photographer. The British Institute of Professional Photography June/July 2010 issue
Front coverand and feature on Lynne Collins. READ REVIEW
The AOP open awards Catalogue 2009
Sovereign Art Prize Catalogue 2008
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition catalogue 2007
Bristol Royal Academy online catalogue. 2008
Earthscape Art catalogue.
Landscape. An artists view.