Christopher Sumpton
Bust 80
13×16
Inkjet on Canson Baryta
$ 1,100
1/5
When I was ten my mother gave me her 1930’s Agfa folding camera that shot 120 film. I developed the film and made contact prints in the laundry room while beginning to discover the elements of composition and print-making. In my 20’s I bought a Leica and set up a darkroom with a B&W enlarger, and, inspired by the work of Bill Brandt and other masters, tried to create luminous, high contrast B&W images where light and shadow created abstract shapes from familiar objects that were realistic but also played with the geometry of negative and positive spaces.
Bust 80 is an example of that period. This image reminds me of a marble bust in the museum – where a person’s likeness in frozen in stone, and yet the eyes seem to follow you around the room.
I’ve always been impressed with the way the gum bichromate process creates impressionistic, subtly coloured images that are textural. With Blue Boy there’s a spectrum of textures – contrasting the softness of the boy and his clothing with the carved stone and polishedsurfaces. The figure of the boy also reminds me of time flowing through static space.