Mark Pilkington : PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITION

Photographic Exhibition Review Justine Navarro University Of Malta MFA Digital Art November 27, 2011 Mario Aquilina

PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITION Abstract This is a review of a recent exhibition of digital photographic prints by British

photographer Mark Pilkington at the Christine X Gallery in Sliema Malta : a series of 24 images depicting landscapes in Gozo and then manipulated to follow the photographers vision. This is the digital art aspect of the work in that the artist has done more then just capturing a scene but has rather used balance and time in order to capture himself in front of the lens and at times mirror a landscape into an almost symmetrical composition.

Review As one walks into the exhibition space, one immediately assumes that this is yet another landscape photography exhibition, but at a closer look one gets to see the playful and manipulated nature of the photographs. The digital prints all feature the photographer himself as a small figure standing and posing in large seascapes, landscapes, by the shore and in quarries. Several of the landscapes are symmetrical in composition in that, the photographer has taken a section of the scene and reflected it to make long panoramic stills, at times seamlessly merging the two separate images, not taken simultaneously, but within a few seconds of each other. The photographer takes one shot and then positions himself in front of the lens, posing to take another picture. They are seamless even when the two pictures are visibly different, for instance seascapes change by the second; yet the photographer still manages to join the crests of the waves as in the invitation image Sea Wave. The work has distinctly washed out colours due to the white clay lunar type landscapes of Qbajjar in Gozo that have previously been used in shoots in fashion publications like Vogue. The

PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITION choice of landscapes works well in photography and the prints featuring rubble walls and green

fields represent the Maltese islands very well although, they do not have the appeal that the stone cliffs and quarries resonate, as do the rocks by the sea carved out by the weather. These prints again show the figure in the Gozo landscapes but the feeling is of a very different nature than that of fashion. The images almost have a spiritual, minimalist, Zen feel to them. The photographer, bald and dressed in white linen, looks a like a monk, meditating in the scene. The pictures are beautifully serene. According to the photographer his work has always focused on using himself in the work, not as a self-portrait but more as a protagonist in an uninhabited world interacting with the surrounding environment. He enjoys being both behind and in front of the lens, which is uncommon amongst local photographic exhibitions I have seen. Is self-portraiture in photography an area still to be discovered and exhibited by Maltese photographers? The photographer uses realism but at the same time these images are constructed, testing the audiences perception of what is real against photographic norms, using trickery edited to show a more balanced composition.
The photographs are constructed and edited to create a world that refers to a particular landscape but does not rely on it.

Mark Pilkington

At times the photographer will cut out an element in the natural landscape, in order to make a better picture. For instance in Quarry Theater the building visible on the top left of the frame is removed in the reflected image that includes the figure standing, as if the building structure balances out and compensates for the figure. This series of photographs work well as a complete exhibition. It is amusing to see how the figure moves position in the different images, like in childrens cartoons of Wheres Wally

PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITION but in a much more subdued and grown up format indicating a possible narrative. We wonder what will happen next to the protagonist. Cliffs balance is particularly playful in its approach as the protagonist almost dances while balancing on the large boulders in the foreground of the rolling clay cliffs.