Landmarked

Lightboxes, memory, and the pulse of place.

Landmarked marks the initial set of lightbox experiments from my ongoing Broadway market ‘Imprints’ project. Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to exhibit these pieces at Hanbury Hall and St Margaret’s House.

The works blend photography, painting, and light — an exploration of how surface, memory, and transformation can coexist. The original photographs were taken along Broadway Market, capturing fragments of the street: weathered textures, colour shifts, small details, and the subtle marks left behind by movement and time.

My goal was to push these images further — to experiment with scale, layering, and rhythm to evoke a sense of chaos, motion, and tactile energy.

I began in Photoshop, layering and subtly collaging different colours and textures from the original photographs. Using a head-controlled mouse, I cut and shaped the images through head movements — a process both intuitive and precise. These collaged compositions were then printed onto acetate, becoming the top layer.

From there, I introduced expressive, gestural painting on canvas using my adapted hand-painting tools. The painted marks echoed textures found in the photographs — fluid splashes, abstract gestures, and layered brushwork that responded to the imagery above.

Finally, I housed both the photographic and painted layers within a lightbox. This final step shifted the narrative again — reframing the work through illumination. I experimented with composition until the tactile painted marks began to merge with the sharpness of the photographic surface. The light blurs the boundary between digital and physical, making the image feel a sense of motion, subtly distorting and softening the story they tell.

This process continues my exploration of layering and using light as both material and metaphor — a way of abstracting images. It’s a visual and emotional mapping of place through memory, material, and transformation.

I’m excited to keep developing this body of work — refining the techniques and expanding the toolbox — and to keep playing with markmaking, texture, and gesture to reimagine how I relate to such a significant space in my story.

Hanbury Hall, 2025