Meet Dave Shannon on 17. February at Gallery LIK in Vienna
“I started photography whilst I was in my teens. I was lucky enough to go to a school that had a darkroom and a teacher who was passionate about photography and passing on his darkroom skills. The bug has never left me. Darkroom alchemy is addictive to me, watching the print develop before my eyes in the tray. It must be remembered that darkroom techniques were the original Photoshop! I started with my Fathers Voigtlander 35mm rangefinder then moved onto the Minolta system with an X700, (how I regret selling it). I upgraded to autofocus and then digital all with Minolta before Sony bought them out. I missed shooting film so bought a Mamiya 645 whilst swapping my Minolta gear for Canon. That’s where I am now, Canon for digital and Mamiya systems for 645 and 6x7 film. I managed to attain the level of Licentiate of the Royal Photographic Society at Art College. This was shot with black and white film and darkroom printed submissions rather than digital images. My photography heroes are numerous and varied. Don McCullin, Sebastiao Salgado, Bob Carlos Clarke, Bailey and Ansel Adams obviously. There is a controversy with the Vivian Mayer story but she was an incredible photographer and has an important historical archive. I love the work of Richard Young and new photographer Vivianna M. Curiel Flores. This exhibition is typical of what I shoot. As I have already said I do use both photography mediums but prefer analogue, shooting portraits, street photography and old buildings with character. I am lucky enough to live in an incredible area of Spain where all the subjects reveal themselves to my lens. I have also managed to set up my own darkroom in the back of my house. I print up to 12 x 16 inches preferring fibre based matt or semi matt papers. Currently I am also experimenting with warm tone papers and different developers. I use mainly Ilford products but the book The Darkroom Cookbook has a great developer recipe for Ansco 113 which was favored by Ansel Adams. Another delight of analogue photography, the ability to experiment without having to sit in front of a computer screen. Maybe the results will be for my next exhibition though! My next goals are to set up a website and post more frequently on Instagram. Digital does have its uses.”
Dave Shannon Photographer
17.2.2023 - 10.3.2023
in der Galerie LIK, in der Spittelberggasse 9 in 1070 Wien.
Vernissage am 26.4.2022 um 19:00 Uhr. Anmeldung zur Vernissage HIER
"The Analog" Photography by David Shannon in der Galerie LIK in Wien.