Garry Fabian Miller Exhibition

30 June - 11 September 2005

Garry Fabian Miller is one of the most progressive figures in fine art photography. Born in 1957, he has made exclusively 'camera-less' photographs since the mid 1980s. He works in the darkroom, shining light through coloured glass vessels and over cut-paper shapes to create forms that record directly onto photographic paper. These rudimentary methods recall the earliest days of photography, when the effects of light on sensitised paper seemed magical.

Across languages and cultures, the earliest colour categories are believed to have been those of light and dark, followed almost universally by a term for red. Fabian Miller's images therefore suggest primal experience and a definition of colour and shape that can be understood on several levels. The titles Becoming Magma and From the Red Pool refer to molten rock beneath the earth's surface. The horizontal images conjure a prehistoric landscape. The circular pieces evoke a planetary or cosmic form, perhaps the Zen enso, or circles of enlightenment - a symbol of the cycle of life.

Martin Barnes
Curator, Photographs

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