State of his mind
British photographer turns his battle with anxiety into a series of photographic wonders.
FOGGY-headed is not a word you would use to describe British photographer Paul Gadd. But that’s exactly how the 50-year-old guy felt several years ago.
“a dead bird shoved inside a cage, head first, that was my state of mind. Totally bogged up,” shares Gadd during a recent interview at The Print Room, a Petaling Jaya-based photography studio/gallery specialising in film photography.
he reveals that it was a period of anxiety and gloom. he isn’t even sure how it all began. It just happened, The Print Room director says. But Gadd was sure of one thing. he refused to find a solution through psychiatric medications.
“My way out of this was through work. I released my stress through photography and that seemed to help. That and a few bottles of wine,” he says with a laugh.
and the results are stunning. enter Gadd’s aptly named State Of Mind film photography exhibition, which is showing at The Print Room till March 17.
The 30 photographs are a culmination of Gadd’s work which he began in 2014 as a response to developments in his personal life and to real-life events and issues which he felt strongly about.
“It’s quite personal and heavy. It’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea,” says Gadd, who was part of the art-rooms Fair Seoul in October last year, an international art fair for independent artists.
Frankly, State Of Mind, which marks The Print Room’s 16th exhibition since it opened its doors in 2011, offers a body of work which is not only aesthetically and visually spectacular but refreshing as well.
digital photography, albeit producing great visuals, seem to be rent of the magic and rawness film photography affords an image. Indeed, there is something satisfying and meditative in the painstaking and laborious traditional printing techniques used instead of digital manipulation of images.
as a strong proponent of film photography, Gadd enthusiastically tells of some of the techniques he used to produce this otherworldly series for this exhibition, which includes bleaching, scratching, waxing and painting on each of his images.
“experimenting in the darkroom with my film negatives and with the printing process helped to create the final images in a way I couldn’t have done on a computer,” says Gadd, calling the process organic.
“To be honest, you can’t do this on a computer. every image will be exactly the same because it’s pixels and not grain. So it’s very linear and not raw. With film photography, every print is going to be slightly different. It’s nice to see originality.”
Take for instance Inhabitants Of Fairyland.
Gadd’s wizardry of film photography techniques are so masterful, with a lower grade print and the usage of photographic paint, that the image can be mistaken for a painting.
The central figure of the image is a bouquet of flowers, placed to look like a tree, set against a grey background. Underneath are small, reddish fruits and fluttering about the bouquet and crawling on the fruits are insects.
“This piece is about creating a new environment for all the dead stuff,” says Gadd, sharing that it was an encounter he had as a child with what he claims to be a fairy that inspired this piece.
In fact, Inhabitants Of Fairyland is also the title of one of the two series under the banner of this exhibition. It features birds, insects and plant life, things Gadd sourced for in his own garden and gave them a new life. The other series, also called State Of Mind, deals with personal and worldly issues. They are a means for Gadd to get over his bouts of anxiety.
No wonder Gadd took this long to perfect and curate his work. and you know you are talking to a true artist – and perfectionist maybe – when he tells you that he is still working on a particular piece for nearly two years.
The photograph, depicting a bird set in a paradise-like surrounding, was part of The Print Room’s Encore group exhibition in 2017 and Gadd says he has never been happy with it.
“So recently I re-shot it, re-scratched the negative, printed it at a lower grade and covered it in bee’s wax. By adding multiple layers of wax on sections of the image gives dimension to the photograph, personalising the work even further.
“I’m quite happy with it now. It looks totally different from the original,” recounts Gadd.
and the man is not done yet. he says that he is still shooting photographs and reckons it’s not going to stop.
“For something as personal as this, it won’t stop. It’s always going to progress. Whenever I feel or think of something, it’s just going to add more to it,” concludes Gadd.
State Of Mind is on at The Print Room in Petaling Jaya, Selangor till March 17. For more information, go to theprintroomkl.com or email info@theprintroomkl.com. You can also call 03-7931 2227.