Photographic Artist Jan Hardisty

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Although I’m not necessarily an ‘art’ buff, I still find myself getting inspired by a multitude of artists both from the past and present. A link between those that do inspire me is an element of abstraction, such as Picasso or Salvador Dali, maybe even Alexander Calder to throw a sculptural artist in the mix. So when I came across photographic artist Jan Hardisty this week I felt like it was definitely worthy of a post and further exploration. To say his work is intriguing is an understatement, if you can believe it he creates all of these with a camera!

Firstly I have to say thanks to our friends at Goldmark gallery in Uppingham, England, who’ve been releasing a fantastic concoction of content on their website. This includes videos, photography, also a representation of different artists/makers in their online shop, with Jan Hardisty being one of them. At first sight I thought Jan’s works were paintings, but after watching the film placed below I was intrigued to hear these are all photographed and are made using special trickery with natural light and simple/unusual objects.

Jan Hardisty is half Danish and spent his early years in Aarhus, Denmark before his family settled down in North London. He studied Graphic Design at the Central School of Art, and through his photographic work for theatre productions he became a lighting designer, travelling with theatre companies throughout Britain and Europe. As with any photographer, Jan has quite a fascination with the manipulation and control of light, he now lives and works in Leicestershire where he’s been a photographic artist for the last fifteen years.

As you’ll see in the film, Jan works creatively to compose these photographs in such a way that you can’t quite tell if it’s a photograph or a painting of some sort. He often leaves clues here and there in the photos, but even then your mind is battling with the idea of something real and something that’s not, I think this makes the photos timeless in appearance. I would love to have these on my wall as I’d never get tired of looking at them. Personally, I find some of them quite architectural and the forms are structural in shape, take the above piece for example titled ‘House and Garden’ which obviously represents this thinking but made exclusively out of paper. I don’t want to spoil the film too much, so watch on below and enjoy!

goldmarkart.com

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