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Shifting Horizons @ Digital Window Gallery

27 March - 31 March 2024

PLATFORM: ISSUE 6

26 March 2024

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Saturday Town: Launch Event

10 April 2024

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Coming Soon: Saturday Town

11 April - 18 May 2024

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PLATFORM: ZINE LAUNCH EVENT

21 March 2024

Home. Ukrainian Photography, UK Words: Tour

4 March - 28 February 2025

Exhibitions

Home: Ukrainian Photography, UK Words @ New Adelphi

4 March - 8 March 2024

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CREATIVE SOCIAL: IN THE ABSENCE OF FORMAL GROUND

2 March 2024

Exhibitions

We Feed The UK @ Exterior Walls

8 February - 31 March 2024

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Contrail Cirrus: the impact of aviation on climate change

7 March 2024

Exhibitions

Tree Story @ Liverpool ONE

16 February - 1 May 2024

Open Source #27: Saffron Lily – In The Absence of Formal Ground @ Digital Window Gallery

6 February - 31 March 2024

Past Events

Contemporary Photography from Ukraine: Symposium @University of Salford

4 March - 5 March 2024

Past Events

Is Anybody Listening? Symposium: Commissioning and Collecting Socially Engaged Photography

29 February 2024

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Different approaches: Artists working with scientists

15 February 2024

Events

LOOK Climate Lab 2024: All Events

18 January 2024

Exhibitions

Diesel & Dust @ Digital Window Gallery

18 January - 31 March 2024

Events

Tree Walks Of Sefton Park with Andrea Ku

21 January 2024

Past Events

Artists Remake the World by Vid Simoniti: Book Launch

31 January 2024

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Shift Liverpool Open Meeting

6 February 2024

Past Events

We Feed The UK Launch and LOOK Climate Lab 2024 Celebration

8 February 2024

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Cyanotype workshop with Melanie King

17 February 2024

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End of Empire: artist talk and discussion

22 February 2024

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Book Launch: What The Mine Gives, The Mine Takes

24 February 2024

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Local ecology in the post-industrial era: open discussion

14 March 2024

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Waterlands: creative writing workshop

23 March 2024

Past Events

Plant a seed. Seed sow and in conversation with Plot2Plate

16 March 2024

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Erosion: panel discussion

9 March 2024

Past Events

Waterlands: an evening of poetry and photographs

23 March 2024

Events

Force For Nature Exhibition

27 March - 28 March 2024

Voices of Nature: Interactive Performances

28 March 2024

Past Events

Sum of All Parts: Symposium

27 February 2024

Exhibitions Main Exhibition

LOOK Climate Lab 2024

18 January - 31 March 2024

Past Events

MA Socially engaged photography Open Day event

1 February 2023

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Tish: Special screening and Q&A

13 December 2023

Past Events

Book Launch: A Look At A New Perspective

23 November 2023

Events

Community workshops @ Ellesmere Port Library

6 November - 5 February 2024

Past Events

Book Launch: ‘544m’ By Kevin Crooks

30 November 2023

Past Exhibitions

Bernice Mulenga @ Open Eye Gallery Atrium Space

17 November - 17 December 2023

Past Events

Bernice Mulenga: Artist Talk

18 November 2023

Past Exhibitions

Local Roots @ The Atkinson

14 October 2023

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Community @ Ellesmere Port Library

26 October - 11 April 2024

Past Events

Critique Surgery for Socially Engaged Photographers

6 November 2023

Past Events

Deeds Not Words: panel discussion

12 October 2023

Past Exhibitions

Deeds Not Words @ Atrium Space

3 October - 22 October 2023

Ode To Our Space @ Digital Window Gallery

29 September - 23 December 2023

A Look At A New Perspective @ Digital Window Gallery

29 September - 23 December 2023

Past Events

Book Launch: Crow Dark Dawn

19 October 2023

Past Events

Exhibition Launch: A Place of Our Own

28 September 2023

Reflections

12 September - 22 December 2023

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In response to the I-1

The last five years has heralded some truly innovative technology that has really pushed the boundaries of what consumers can come to expect from the visual market. 2016 is the year of 4k video being produced on a phone, mirrorless, full frame cameras that can compete with DSLRs and ridiculous quality 100-megapixel, medium format behemoths being the trend.

Gone are the days when photography, or rather the photographer, is reliant on having the best kit. Brilliant digital cameras capable of producing professional results are available from amateur level price-tags on the high street. These ‘entry level’ DSLRs do not vary much between brands in terms of their rather impressive picture quality, especially when in their respective automatic modes to the point where to be entrusted with an old manual camera today would be simply too slow and inaccurate in unfamiliar hands.

When digital cameras made their first appearance, the quality of the image, although revolutionary and exciting, was completely redundant in terms of what a film camera could produce. Since it’s conception, digital technology has had to prove itself within the existing market of camera users in order to stake its claim of superiority. In order to do so, modern cameras had to be able to surpass celluloid relatively and in their own field- this is why the top end DSLRs today are called ‘full-frame’. The term ‘full-frame’ relates to the physical size of the sensor plane able to record an image- that is: 36mm x 24mm, or, in other terms: the exact size of a 35mm film frame.

The sensitivity of the instruments and of the algorithms used within DSLRs today can indeed rival and at times surpass 35mm film in terms of scientifically representing an environment. Teamed with highly intelligent auto modes and a seemingly endless amount of space to record multiple images – photography has never been easier or more consistently able to produce impressive results.

The question, then, if digital photography is in its prime, is this: why is experimental, analogue, chemical-based photography becoming increasingly popular?

2016 will see both Kodak and Impossible bring out new cameras to herald the “analogue renaissance”, the first of which being released only last month: Impossible’s I-1. This camera will feel familiar and nostalgic, as would anything using such an iconic and recognizable format known as a Polaroid. At its core, the I-1 is a Polaroid camera and can be used as such. Essentially, this is a point and shoot camera that produces chemically volatile images that are at the very edge of the spectrum of visual reliability. The creation of this camera in 2016 is interesting enough but what comes in the box is only half of the creature. Whilst the I-1 appears to belong in the 20th century, the second half of the I-1 exists in app form (iOS) and very much belongs to the smartphone generation. The app connects the camera to an iPhone and completely transforms the ‘Polaroid’ into the real I-1. The original automatic point and shoot is left behind as you are handed the controls to the first ever fully manual digital instant camera. The app allows the use of manual shutterspeed, aperture and double exposure, to but name a few.

The I-1’s manual mode opens up a whole range of creative options akin to what one would expect from a more traditional camera body- Impossible have given the user and the machine the ability to attempt consistency but also the film stock to completely destroy that illusion. By no means should the I-1’s audience be able to know exactly what is going to spit out of the camera’s belly. Impossible, like Polaroid before them do not create precision tools- they make a photographic toy box. What is produced from the I-1 and its 8-frame film cartridge should be unexpected and exciting.

Still, the question of why technically inferior methods of making an image are causing such a stir has to be raised. The history of photography is a brief one that began in a kind of alchemy- it was a very unstable process that resulted in a skewed vision of our world on glass and paper. What made the images magical were that they did not represent the world at all but instead showed very human mistakes towards making a perfect rendering of the external scene. These same ‘mistakes’ are present within the painter’s brush strokes or the poet’s vocabulary; it is what characterizes authorship and also what is lacking from the algorithms used throughout most digital cameras produced today.

The I-1 is by no means perfect- it simply shouldn’t be. The I-1 is a novel, experimental and refreshing break from the automatic nature of 21st century media.

WRITTEN BY DECLAN CONNOLLY

Images courtesy of Impossible’s website and Impossible’s Instagram.

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