‘Rubble’, 2022
On the way back home on the train one afternoon, I spotted this abandoned job centre that I thought would make for an interesting composition. The other image is of a landing in a high-rise building. The two together create this eery liminal setting which seems nightmarish and almost apocalyptic. It acts as a nod to the current economic crisis and cost of living crisis.
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Locations:
Anniesland Job Centre, Glasgow, Scotland
Cedar Court landing, Glasgow, Scotland
Equipment:
Olympus OM4ti
Ilford HP5 Plus 400 35mm
Adobe Photoshop
A3 print (framed) - £190
Frame size: 54 x 43.3 cm
Image size: 35 x 23.2 cm
Hahnemühle Photo Rag 308gsm archival paper
A3 print (unframed) - £90
Image size: 35 x 23.2 cm on A3
Hahnemühle Photo Rag 308gsm archival paper
E-Mail me if you are interested in purchasing.
Alasdair (b.1993) is a Scottish artist working in the medium of photographic double exposures. His work blurs the lines between surrealist art and photography. He creates his art by shooting on analogue 35mm black and white film and then digitally layering two photographs together in Photoshop. He enjoys the technique of combining old and new technologies as it allows greater creative freedom and flexibility. The grainy quality that comes with an analogue camera is enhanced by the ability to select and blend particular images using modern software like Photoshop.
He is also a trained graphic and website designer, having previously set up and run a successful freelance business with a close friend where he worked with various clients in the arts and culture sector in Scotland. Although his focus has now shifted towards art he still works as a freelancer within this industry. His graphic design practice guides and informs the way he creates double-exposure artwork. He also credits his work ethic and drive to the time he spent working as a chef before starting his creative career.
Alasdair is undoubtedly inspired by his father, Alan Dimmick. A photographer himself, it was Alan who gifted Alasdair his beloved Olympus camera and first guided his passion for photography. Other influences on his work include artists such as Leif Podhajsky, Bridget Riley, Ayham Jabr, Vivian Maier, Glasgow-based Steve McQueen, Karen Vaughan, David Shrigley, Salvador Dali, Pieter Bruegel, Edward Hopper, David Hockney, Henri Carter Bresson and Francisco Goya.
Since starting his Lagoon project in 2020, Alasdair is proud to have shown his work in two solo exhibitions so far with plans for more in the future.
The Lagoon project was born in 2020 during the early days of the pandemic when the world ground to a halt and most of my work as a graphic designer was put on hold. In need of a creative outlet to occupy my mind and time, I began experimenting with images I’d taken on a recent trip to Crail and making my own double exposures.
This eventually gave rise to ‘Lagoon’ and what started as a source of solace during lockdown has now become my main creative outlet as I sell my work at markets and online and exhibit at galleries.
The name Lagoon comes from a little tongue-in-cheek joke as this was what I nicknamed my living room throughout many months of lockdown. I turned my small space into an oasis (or lagoon) of creativity and despite the difficulties of this period, my lagoon became a place filled with happy memories. I created a small, dreamy haven in which to take refuge from the tumultuous dystopia of living through a pandemic. It’s still where I work today.
There is an added irony in the name Lagoon as this word might usually evoke bright, natural imagery, while my work is monochromatic and often focuses on urban areas. I aim to create a surrealist, sometimes dreamy, sometimes nightmarish feel to my work which feels fitting as Lagoons are often considered places full of mystery and intrigue.
My first, late-night attempt at creating a double exposure still sits clearly in my mind and the final piece remains a favourite in the collection. Working with scanned digital copies of film photographs I had taken - one a view from my flat and the second taken in the centre of Frankfurt, Germany - the shots were layered over each other using Photoshop. The surreal outcome of marrying two photographs together particularly struck a chord at a time of strange and heavy restrictions on our usual freedoms. The original, separate compositions come together to create a contradictory place which simultaneously does and does not exist; which we can and cannot explore. Reminiscent, perhaps, of the notion that the places and people we see in dreams are the product of real experiences, woven together by our minds to design a new environment. From the comfort and confinement of my home, digging out photographs taken on my Olympus analogue camera became a way to discover and create new spaces and places whilst the outside world was off-limits.
As a collection, these works subscribe to the surrealist genre, creating dreamlike - and in some cases, nightmarish - scene-scapes. Broadly speaking, the themes in this body of work include natural, urban and liminal spaces, examining the antagonism in the flourishing of artistic freedom and escapism in a time of constraint and limitation.
This project has taught me a lot and I’m still learning each day that I step out with my camera or enter my Lagoon to work on edits. As I continue to work on this project, my ideas, concepts, inspiration and techniques keep evolving. I like experimenting and figuring out different methods for allowing two images to naturally (or unnaturally) coexist. This could be through using different angles, perspectives, white space, mirrors and windows.
I enjoy the challenge of finding subject matter that interests me to photograph and subsequently turn into a double-exposure artwork. I find that inspiration can come from spotting something while out walking that sparks an idea in my mind to explore further, or from a lyric from a song which creates an image in my head that inspires me. Sometimes inspiration simply comes from reviewing my recent photographs and piecing them together in unexpected ways to create something interesting. I think a lot of my work is quite instinctive and natural. I’m always striving for visual impact and while some of this may come with a preconceived concept or narrative, they are always open to interpretation.
E-mail: alasdair@alasdairdimmick.com
Instagram: @alasdairdimmick
Tel: 07528499104
E-mail: alasdair@alasdairdimmick.com
Instagram: @alasdairdimmick
Tel: 07528499104