Exhibition

Adrian Wilson Retrospective

10 Jan 2022 – 18 Feb 2022

Regular hours

Monday
09:00 – 17:00
Tuesday
09:00 – 17:00
Wednesday
09:00 – 17:00
Thursday
09:00 – 17:00
Friday
09:00 – 17:00
Saturday
Closed
Sunday
Closed

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Considered to be the world's first professional photographer to specialize in digital image manipulation on a paint system, Adrian Wilson used the Quantel Paintbox from 1986 to 1990 to create the images on display in this exhibition

About

  • Did you know that the first modern digital photographic meme was most likely created at Blackpool School of Arts in 1987?  
  • Did you know that Adrian Wilson, an alumnus of Blackpool School of Arts, is thought to be the world's first professional photographer to specialise in digital image manipulation?  

In 1986, Blackpool School of Arts was the first college to acquire a Quantel Paintbox - a forerunner to Photoshop that revolutionized digital art and graphics, inspired fashions and heralded the Photoshop Era.  

The truly revolutionary £150,000 broadcast TV graphics system, which famously was David Hockney's introduction to digital art, premiered in Blackpool and moved every 4 months between two other Northwest colleges. HND Photography student, Adrian Wilson, used it in Blackpool and while it was in Stockport College to create the ground-breaking work on display in this exhibition 

Considered to be the world's first professional photographer to specialize in digital image manipulation on a paint system, Adrian Wilson used the Quantel Paintbox from 1986 to 1990 to create still images. He was supported by both Quantel and Fuji Film, his work appearing on the cover of Quantel's brochure. Wilson was commissioned by magazines such as Creative Review and Personal Computer, he also wrote for Computer Images and his work appeared in SIGGRAPH's Leonardo in 1989. Two of his images were featured in the seminal 1988 Art & Computers show at Cleveland Gallery.  

In July 2021, Adrian acquired one of only 5 known Paintboxes in North America, a 1990 "Harriet" and had it restored to full working order.  

Adrian, a successful photographer based in New York will have the first show of his 1980's Paintbox work at Blackpool School of Arts, where he first used the Paintbox in 1986.  

Adrian says ‘In 35 years, I've never agreed to a solo show of my work, but Blackpool is where it all began.’  

‘…as the first photographer in the world to specialize in the digital manipulation of photography, I created art and record covers on a $250,000 Quantel Paintbox four years before Photoshop 1.0 was released.’  

‘The exhibition will reveal possibly the world's oldest surviving digital photographic meme, which I created in 1987 before the internet and JPEG were invented.’  

‘I have been invited to put on a solo show at Blackpool School of Art’s art gallery from January 10th to February 18th 2022. To me, that is the best full circle this story could have taken. I plan to take a Paintbox to the college to show the students what the Quantel people showed me 35 years ago. How cool is that?’  

Such is the historical importance of this work in the history of photography, Wilson has decided to donate his images and collection to the permanent archive at the National Science and Media Museum, Bradford.  

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Adrian Wilson

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