Since graduating in 2008 Owen Martin has formed a career as a photographer at international levels. His practice has always pushed the equipment he uses and his primary interest is in the aesthetic elaboration on scientific techniques within the medium.
In a world where everyone seems to be a photographer he has found that something new needs to be brought in order to challenge the medium. Owen uses noise from high ISO settings on his digital cameras to stretch the limits of the technology. He generates a different look through this pioneering approach to consider the outer limits and reaches of his tools.
“I have always had a deep interest in science and technology and I feel that photography is a medium that best allows me to include these in my work. I am interested in texture, light, and shadow - rather than colour- and the moods that these evoke.”
Experiments with telescopes and, more recently, microscopes, have revealed in more depth the boundaries of lens technology. His photographs explore themes on the environment and in particular those considering tensions between loneliness and isolation. This colour palette deliberately toys with these themes to create ethereal textures and bleakness. The resulting photographs are simplistic in composition and yet swamped with noise. The effect on the viewer is deliberate and uncanny. Whether the subject is spiders or sunsets Owen seems to challenge the notion of a comfortable environment.
His unusual photographs have been widely received and shown in exhibitions in Rio de Janeiro, New York, and Venice as well as closer to home in the UK in Bath, London and Swansea. He is currently experimenting with display techniques and alternative materials, such as paint, in order to widen the scope of his concepts. The results of these experiments will be shown at various venues in 2014.
In a world where everyone seems to be a photographer he has found that something new needs to be brought in order to challenge the medium. Owen uses noise from high ISO settings on his digital cameras to stretch the limits of the technology. He generates a different look through this pioneering approach to consider the outer limits and reaches of his tools.
“I have always had a deep interest in science and technology and I feel that photography is a medium that best allows me to include these in my work. I am interested in texture, light, and shadow - rather than colour- and the moods that these evoke.”
Experiments with telescopes and, more recently, microscopes, have revealed in more depth the boundaries of lens technology. His photographs explore themes on the environment and in particular those considering tensions between loneliness and isolation. This colour palette deliberately toys with these themes to create ethereal textures and bleakness. The resulting photographs are simplistic in composition and yet swamped with noise. The effect on the viewer is deliberate and uncanny. Whether the subject is spiders or sunsets Owen seems to challenge the notion of a comfortable environment.
His unusual photographs have been widely received and shown in exhibitions in Rio de Janeiro, New York, and Venice as well as closer to home in the UK in Bath, London and Swansea. He is currently experimenting with display techniques and alternative materials, such as paint, in order to widen the scope of his concepts. The results of these experiments will be shown at various venues in 2014.
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