The next exhibition in Light House‘s dedicated photography gallery is Shedding Light [Appropriation] by Anthony William Bye running from May 25th to July 13th.
Appropriated stills have been captured from 1960s cinefilm to create this exhibition documenting episodes in lives from a personal, political and cultural perspective. The images are selected carefully from diverse films including home movies, Air Force pilots flying planes, communist Russia and classic American cars taking the archetypal road trip. Using his background as a documentary photographer, Bye re-presents these images to alter the meaning and create a new story.
Just as a filmmaker or animator would draw up a storyboard of the frames of the film, Bye presents his work as a grid of many small images, leaving the audience to decide what the story might be. He takes documentary footage shot by amateur filmmakers and gives it a new light, preserves it as an archive and re-presents a point in history. With 24 frames per second of film to choose from, the process is a labour of love. The film is first transferred to digital format, then individual frames are selected based on aesthetic and intrigue and manipulated so that the original is blurred and softened, giving the appearance of a dream or memory.
This work is an ongoing development of Bye’s practice. Specifically for this exhibition his approach is more personal, using footage from his own family archive, which he has more recently discovered. Bye’s fascination in dissecting and re-positioning archive images is supported by a growing public interest in other people’s photographs. Most of Bye’s films were found or given to him and his appropriation of them is his way of prolonging their lives and preserving their existence. Some of the original film footage will also be included in this exhibition.
A quick Google revealed very little about Bye but did uncover this site which has five of the works online including the above and I have to say they’re lovely and quite inspiring. There’s a not-so-Private View on Wed May 30th at 6.30pm. It’s free and all are welcome.