Artist Statement
Working on the beach seems to be something that I am compelled to do as I have not yet tired of it. My goal is to keep on looking harder and hope that through studying a single subject I can find something new. The beach has an infinite complexity - it is constantly changing. Why would I ever tire of trying to understand and record the infinite?
It is the same as gazing at a sea of stars. There is an infinity of interest above us, and an infinity of interest at our feet. You can look deeper into space and you can look deeper at the beach.
The beach always changes - everything in the universe changes, but the beach does so within a human's time scale, giving us the opportunity to return to it and catch the tiniest glimpse of what it is doing - what the world is up to. A link between a human and the outside world. A scientific study. Measuring, comparing and learning as you progress. And by this logic, if you return and record over and over again you star to filter out the common events, and this filtering continues and you slowly get a new look at the subject, until that look itself is old and you look further. And who knows where it will end?
Process Statement
I first visited Poppit Sands in 2007 when I moved to Wales. It is a large beach and I soon discovered a number of special places where the tides created unusual patterns in the sand. These patterns and shapes have captivated me for many years. It always feels new on Poppit, so I think that it is not really a photographic project as such, but a never ending process of discovering and revealing what is there. It is a photographic world full of dead ends and stop signs and false starts - and then the occasional revelation and temptation and suggestion. And then frustration. It is like a drug - it gives and takes.
Michael Jackson born (1966) is a contemporary photographer from the UK currently living in Wales.
His work has toured with the Hasselblad Masters On Tour twice and has been exhibited in Copenhagen, Hong Kong, Beijing, Berlin, New York, Cardiff, London & Los Angeles. The images have also reached the Hasselblad Masters Finals three times.
In 2013 Michael's work on Poppit Sands won The Chris Beetles Award in London.
After studying art at West Dean College he apprenticed under the landscape painter Christopher W. Baker.
'Working on the beach seems to be something that I am compelled to do as I have not yet tired of it. My goal is to keep on looking harder and hope that through studying a single subject I can find something new. The beach has an infinite complexity - it is constantly changing. Why would I ever tire of trying to understand and record the infinite?'
For his latest solo exhibition in London, The Beetles & Huxley Gallery produced the following press release -
"His ongoing project 'Poppit Sands' explores the intriguing shapes and textures that this remote beach on the Pembrokeshire Coast has to offer. Through a long term relationship with this ever changing subject, Jackson has captured the landscape like never before, creating semi-abstracted works of art which each show the coast in a totally unique and profound way.
Jackson's photographs are produced using a 40 year old Hasselblad camera, the negatives from which are used to create traditional dark room prints. His pictures have been compared to moonscapes due to their peculiar tones and shapes, sea water transformed into pools of black mercury sitting amongst a silver terrain."
"...the subject stops being just a project and becomes a part of what the rest of your life revolves around - it is a solid core. No matter what else changes, the beach is still there."
The website 'Luminous Lint' added of his work -
"Using the square format of a Hasselblad frame to best advantage Michael Jackson has created a dark and brooding series of images that lift themselves from temporal or spatial constraints. The work has similarities with the work of Minor White and Aaron Siskind being a search for the inner meaning of form but Michael Jackson does not provide his own interpretations:
"I think an image needs to be born from an honest place. It needs strength and also something that cannot be described in words. Words are pretty useless when it comes to describing heartfelt reactions."
The work of Michael Jackson is an abstraction of the real and leaves the viewer to add additional levels of meaning."
Michael is represented by the Beetles & Huxley Gallery, Mayfair, London.
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