Anne-Laure Autin

BPF OPEN16 SOLO Shortlist Showcase

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I just returned from a day visit with the family to Brighton which hosts this month the Brighton Photo Fringe. As I had mentioned when I shared the interview I did for the BPF, I’m very honoured to be part of the OPEN16 SOLO Shortlist Showcase at the Brighton Phoenix and the Outdoor Hub along with 19 other artists.
While visiting the SOLO Shortlist, I asked two people if I could take their spot for a second to take a picture of the projection of my work on the wall. As it happens, Frankie and Ian are teaching photography at a local school and after chatting a bit, they asked if I would mind showing my work to their students who were visiting the BPF for the day. I found myself giving an impromptu mini talk and then they asked for a photo of me with the students which felt like a funny surreal moment. It just goes to show photography connects people in more ways that you’d think! 😉
Here are a few phone snapshots from today. If you’re in the area, the BPF has some fantastic exhibits across town such as the one at King’s House (and you can find the full program here).
Oh, and if you’re not in Brighton but in Berlin this month, I’m also part of a projection at the Berlin Foto Biennale – but I won’t be able to attend. If you’re there, please send me photos! 🙂

The Outdoor Hub
The Outdoor Hub
Pulse next to its happy model!
Pulse next to its happy model!
Loop Projection at the Phoenix Center
Loop Projection at the Phoenix Center
My two biggest fans <3 (AND biggest critics)
My two biggest fans
Photo-op with the Havant Sixth Form College students!
Photo-op with Frankie & Ian’s students!

New work – sneak peek

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11 months ago my father nearly passed away from extreme complications on his first chemotherapy round. I was visiting him in France when it happened. After a month in the hospital he finally got home. Less than a week later he was taken back by ambulance with a life threatening infection, and as it happens I also was visiting then. The past year has been tough and I wish I could say that it’s been uphill from there. But that particular day with its particular circumstances has possibly branded me the most. I didn’t leave the hospital thinking I would do work about this; but somehow from that time onward I knew I would eventually.

That same week I had finished the Locked-in series. And 2016 can feel like it’s been a lot about getting that project “out there” – in the past fortnight alone I heard I’m in a show in NYC as well as one in Vermont and in the Berlin Foto Biennale (if you want to see what I’ve been up to in more details, you can check the CV I have recently added to my About page). But I actually spent a lot of my time making new work as well. I just haven’t shown any of it yet. So today I’m changing that with this small preview.

My new project is called Blood Line. It’s still growing and so I won’t share much for now. I can tell you that though it’s about terminal illness, it most certainly is not documentary work. You won’t see my father in any of the photographs. I can tell you that it’s been a profound challenge to address universal questions linked to such a personal experience and to do those justice with conceptual photography – but it’s also been an amazing process that I believe has helped me grow. So I hope you feel something with this first photograph of the series that I am sharing today:

​Torn. Pigment ink prints, high gloss varnish.​

 

 

Interview for Brighton Photo Fringe 2016

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I am very honored to have been chosen by BPF16 Trainee Curator Jamila Browse to do an interview for the Brighton Photo Fringe 2016!

Jamila reached out to me as I am an OPEN16 SOLO Shortlist artist and the Locked-in series will be projected the whole month of October at the Phoenix Brighton. “Pulse” will also be at the BPF Outdoor Hub at St Peter’s Church, 4 feet tall and all – quite a dramatic change from its original size!

Jamila sent me some very interesting questions and I was thrilled – even more so when I found out I was allowed to answer in depth! Cause you know, I don’t mind talking 😉
Here’s the link to the interview!!

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Photograph in SHOTS magazine

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So I was just going through my mail from last week when I was at the C4FAP for the opening of Center Forward and I had a big envelop – my copy of SHOTS magazine, issue 133, “Still Life”. And I would probably have fallen off my chair reading it had my friend Amy Kanka Valadarsky not messaged me during the night to tell me about it – cause it features a new photograph of mine!

The photograph is tentatively called “I lost my mind” and is part of the exploratory work for my new series “Blood Line”. It’s not currently part of the body of work itself, at least not yet. It might evolve to be but I don’t want to give too much away yet of how/why – so for now let’s just agree that I don’t know! 🙂
It’s very unlike me to photograph a still life. VERY unlike me. But I’ve recently shot a few – felt almost an urge to do so. So I’m a little bit in shock to see it in SHOTS. And very grateful obviously!

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The original shot is actually in colour and looks like this
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Center Forward at the C4FAP

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My next post will be some new work, I promise! But in the mean time, I am seriously honored to be part of the “Center Forward 2016” exhibit at the Center for Fine Art Photography (C4FAP) in Fort Collins, Colorado that opened last week.
The show was curated by the Center’s executive director and curator Hamidah Glasgow as well as Aline Smithson, which made this all the more an humbling experience. The artists I met there are so incredible and I really recommend checking out their work in more detail! The opening coincided with that of Kris Grave‘s fascinating exhibit, Testament, in the North Gallery. In short, the C4FAP was packed and it was a great night!

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I couldn’t fit so much of the audience onto an iPhone shot but this is part of it
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Proof during the Artists Talks that I very much still talk with my hands…

If you’re in the area, the show runs till October 1st!