Author name: Nik Stanbridge

I've always been drawn to the ordinary, the decaying and the mundane. For me, it’s always been about capturing what’s right there in front of us that we all walk past without really noticing. I look for what’s hidden in plain sight that's either transient, disappearing or so obvious we’ve all stopped seeing it. Much of my work is about rendering the commonplace abstract - from muddy tyre tracks to architectural details, to utility workers’ paint on the road. I'm sensitive to ordinariness, transience, evolution and decay and attempt to convey it in these calm and strong images that have solidity and an engagement with the world.

A print on a printing press

The Polymer Photogravure Process – By Nik Stanbridge

By / / Processes, Tutorials & Guides / 6 Comments

I’ve written before about how important it is to me to see and experience my photographs in a printed form of some sort. Whether it’s a darkroom or giclee print, in a photobook or some other physical format, I’m simply not a great fan of looking at photographs (mine at least) on a screen.

A few years ago, I went to the Royal Academy Summer Show in London, something I now try and do every year, and was completely taken aback by a printing technique I’d never even heard of – polymer photogravure (or photopolymer gravure as it’s sometimes called).

M3 and Summitar 50/2

5 Frames in a Reclamation Yard with a Leica M3 and Summitar 50/2 – By Nik Stanbridge

By / / 5 frames with... / 10 Comments

I can’t really remember the exact sequence of events and thoughts that led to my decision to buy a Leica. However, I think it was around the time that I posted more articles here and spent pleasurable time reading other people’s articles. This latter activity I seem to remember drew me to reading some of the many articles by Hamish on why he bought this or that Leica, his trials and tribulations with those cameras, and his decisions to sell/swap them and so on.

At the time, the only thing I really knew about Leicas were the many stories around HCB’s, Garry Winogrand’s famous one, and the fact that Leicalisti are, to put it mildly, evangelistic about their tools.

Start line at Le Mans 1993

5 Frames on FP4 and a Tamron 70-210 at Le Mans in 1993 – By Nik Stanbridge

By / / 5 frames with... / 23 Comments

I was a devoted and habitual attendee at Le Mans in the late 80s and early 90s, having discovered it in my youth when the start of the legendary race was a rare and short item on Saturday afternoon sports TV. From those very early days, I knew that I had to attend one day. From what I saw, it all looked and sounded like the ultimate car race… and the cars… well, just incredible. Road cars and prototypes all in it together in a madcap French extravaganza of spectacle, endurance and huge/dangerous speed differentials between the slowest and fastest cars.

A photograph of leaves on a tree

The Influence of Other Artists on my Work – By Nik Stanbridge

By / / Philosophy & Reflections / 3 Comments

We’re all subject to influences whether we know what they are and/or acknowledge them or not. As visual artists we’re influenced by our environment, other artists and photographers, and of course, what we read and see as we go about our daily lives. I suspect most of this is unconscious influence as it drives not just our photographic work but everything we do and think.

Fry up breakfast

The Influence of Movies on my Work – By Nik Stanbridge

By / / Uncategorized / 14 Comments

I saw Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow Up the other day for the umpteenth time and while it is a film that when I first saw it I did get excited about being a photographer, it didn’t actually influence my photography (I’ve never wanted to be a fashion photographer). Seeing it again though got me thinking about films …

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