DESCRIPTION
As I worked on this series, I was drawn to the Japanese concept of ukiyo, often used to denote a transient or fleeting state – a floating world.
Instant photography, which through its quirky chemistry creates unstable and unrepeatable images, gestures towards that fleetingness.
The emulsion lift process takes the concept of ukiyo one step further: when detached from the plastic backing of a Polaroid print, the sensitised film literally floats away, jellyfish-like.
There is serendipity, too, as the delicate membrane adheres to the cotton rag paper, adding texture to two-dimensional pictures. Every stage of the process brings some unpredictability. The resulting images are ethereal and otherworldly.
Imperfect photographic skins layered onto imperfect paper skins – an ideal method to apply to representations of the human form. More broadly, it is a photographic approach that offers the means to pursue – and take pleasure in – transitory beauty.
AUTHOR
Ángel Gurría-Quintana grew up in Mexico City, where he studied photography for many years. He moved to the United Kingdom in 1997. He is based in Cambridge. His photographs have been on display in exhibitions in Mexico City, Cambridge, London (Mall Galleries), Vermont (Dark Room Gallery 2016, 2017), Montreal (Photo Shoot Awards 2016), Leeds (Shutter Hub Bright 2016), Denver (Big Picture 2017) and Athens (Blank Wall Gallery, 2017).
Other awards and exhibitions:
Awards and exhibitions:
*Honourable Mentions, Monochrome Awards (2024)
*Gold Award, Tokyo International Foto Awards (2024)
*"Polaroid Dreams", Cambridge Open Studio (2024)
*"Inside/Outside", solo exhibition, Stir, Cambridge (2021)
*Honourable Mention, International Photography Awards, One Shot Street Photo (2019)
*Everything I Ever Learnt, Shutter Hub exhibition, Cambridge (2019)
*Merit, Photoshoot Awards (2019)
*A Color Moment, PhotoPlace Gallery, VT (2019)
*Nominee (Amateur/Fine Art), Fine Art Photography Awards (2018)
*Honourable mention, Monochrome Awards (2018)
*Merit, Photoshoot Awards (2018)
*"In a different light", solo exhibition, Stir, Cambridge (2018)
*Honourable Mention (Non-professional/Fine Art), International Photography Awards, 2017
*Honourable Mention, Moscow International Foto Awards 2017
*Photo Portrait Exhibition, curated by Elizabeth Avedon, SxSE Gallery, Molena, GA (November 2017)
*Finalist, Henri Cartier Bresson Passporte Prize for Street Photography, 2017
*Finalist, TZIPAC Award (October 2017)
