Marek Smith - 'light on the skin'

About

The exhibition 'light on the skin' at POSK is my 7th and my first in London. My Polish grandfather, Zygmunt Bienkowski was involved in the formation of this centre in the 1970s after coming to the UK during WWII where he served as Squadron Leader with the RAF 303/302, Polish Squadrons. He was quite an artist and a big influence in my appreciation of art from a young age.  

 There is philosophy here. Light creates everything and I try to work with it to find texture in printing. Theses are old frames and 15 years of work and practice and travelling. I started in darkrooms with black and white photography and now produce digitally for print. There is a manual and methodical approach to editing and printing. These images are pages from a book, memories, stories... 

light on the skin. An organic surface. Reflections of nature. Translating light. Ink on paper. Placed on the wall in a light place.  

There is beauty in diversity, a human-spirit of hope, belief, community, a relationship formed in light that is at once given and shared to be used.  

An art comes through production, the tools of technology and a hat-tipped to history.  

I began to learn my photography through the magazines and books I read in my childhood; National Geographic, editorials on Bresson, Adams and Salgado, British photographers in the Vietnam war, prints of prints from the masters, pictures of art and beauty. From Art school  to documentary photography at Stockport College, and after a childhood in the Middle East, I set off to India for my portfolio. 

I am fascinated by the difference and depth in culture and its unity under a rising and falling sun. Language without mother-tongue, yet constantly surrounded by communication . In Sri-Lanka I was working for the YMCA National Council and after a few months, across Indonesia to a nation I had first heard about in 1999, Timor-Leste. I witnessed Independence there in 2002 and with the humanitarian mission, made it my home for years. I became a PADI dive instructor there in 2010. I have most recently been living on the beautiful island of Bali, from where I returned to the UK in 2015. 

I have spent years in black and white and years in colour. It is a continual process of discovery and there is a little thrill of anticipation I feel from after shooting and starting to edit. I like photography to emphasise a human awareness of environment and principally produce for exhibition from natural capture.  

Documentary, Editorial, Art. 

    Marek Smith    

All production ©2016/2017