"Instilling a Sense of Place and Solitude on Film"
Ballymena photographer James Hughes is exhibiting a collection of his finest images from Northern Ireland in the Fine Arts and Crafts Centre at Conway Mill this month. Under the title "Solitude", a number of the international artists' personal selections are displayed, based on his interpretation of solitude and sense of place in his home country. James has exhibited internationally, undertaken commissions in Greece and the US as well as having a permanent collection of his work in Ballymena Museum.
While achieving success at international level the artist presents these images as part of a long-term personal document to capture Northern Ireland's disappearing culture. James has been documenting Co Antrim for over 20 years and these images are his favorites from what he takes from his home county. "In essence I want to know what objects can tell about people, while building a story from what they leave behind," James Hughes says. "I continue to photograph because I have to, I have photographed the almost forgotten terrain, a disappearing place."
All of the images in this exhibit have been taken on a 1960s Rolleiflex camera, apart from the panoramic landscape of Murlough Bay. For James, the main image of Murlough is "a timeless representation that oozes history", it was one of Roger Casement's favourite locations, he wished to be buried at the old churchyard after sailing past on the U-boat. The mound at the bay where one of the Dalriada kings is buried can also be seen in the panoramic picture, where the old castle stood: "I am using my photography and experience to analyse the traces which humanity leaves behind, in effect the phenomenon of portraiture in absentia," James says. "This subject matter is not entirely new but I believe that my photography of the phenomenon is indeed original in its content and in its way of dealing with such a subject."
The fine art collection contains images of bicycles, typewriters, an old hotel and a rare image from inside the old Gasworks attic. The pictures are of subjective objects mostly ravaged by the material culture so hard to escape in our world and aims to bring people to their own understandings of solitude. "For me it also emulates a pictorial symbolisation of social, cultural and psychological relationships, an awareness of identity and meaning," James says. "It becomes a way to communicate interior elements of the photographer's self-identity and his individual experiences. These can lead us through an instrinsically delicate world of dreams and passions that merge into the dark imagery of broken promises and failures, something that we locally are having to come to terms with".
James' work can also be seen in the Creative Review and the British Journal of Photography. James is exhibiting his work in association with the Falls Fine Arts and Crafts at the Conway Mill. The fine arts and crafts centre has been set up as a non-profit organisation to promote local artists and craft workers, a platform for local ability. [ ... ]