Michael Lee
Artist Statement 2015
My photographs may appear to be computer manipulated, however, they are in fact generated entirely within my camera. My technique utilises a function for creating composite images of three sequential exposures. Except instead of keeping the camera in a secured fixed position, I twist my lens, drag the camera and alter focus between and during each exposure. So it’s a way of both acknowledging and rejecting the stillness that this function usually demands. Add to that the frequency of moving subjects and passing of time throughout the capture, the range of variables involved in the entire process pushes my photography towards a quasi alchemistic experience. Needless to say it leaves behind a plethora of bizarre discarded pictures.
It is critical that my technique brings movement, life and texture to scenes of the everyday; a car journey, walk in the town, time in the garden, a gathering of friends. I’m searching for the layers, textures, smudges, ghosts and blurs created in a collusion between myself and the camera. It’s a constant negotiation between the very precise technology of digital photography, intuition and happenstance to produce an elusive image.
Awards:
Milly Apthorp Prize, Artsdepot Open, July 2016
Exhibitions:
Berliner Liste, Sepptember 2016, Berlin
Artsdepot Open, July - September 2016, Apthorp Gallery
Salon des Refusés. June 2016, Space Gallery
WITP?, June 2016, Clerkenwell Gallery
CEOS Group Show, May 2016, Original Gallery
YBFAMI Summer Art Auction, June 2015, Zabludowicz Collection
Michael Lee Works, June 2015, Crouch End Festival
Spring Exhibition, April – May 2015, The Moreton Gallery
Precarious, Solo Exhibition, August 2014, Upstairs Gallery
Spring Exhibition, April – May 2014, The Moreton Gallery
The Real World, January – February 2014, Upstairs Gallery
MA Final Show, September 2012, MDX University
Breeze, March 2012, Mile End Art Pavilion
Ragged, April 2011, The Rag Factory
Qualifications:
MA Fine Art, Middlesex University
PGCE Art and Design, Goldsmiths College
Foundation Diploma in Art and Design, UCE
BSC Mathematical Sciences, University of Birmingham