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Photo London, Somerset House: Stand D8

Past exhibition
17 - 20 May 2018
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Overview
Photo London, Somerset House, Stand D8

BLACK BOX PROJECTS PRESENTS NEW WORK BY STEVE MACLEOD AT PHOTO LONDON 2018

 

STAND D8

  

Hala (which means ‘aura’ in Arabic’) is the latest series by artist Steve Macleod. Black Box Projects will present the debut exhibition of this body of work at Photo London, which will run from 17 - 20 May at Somerset House, London. The series comprises 30 images, all taken on a large-format camera between 2015 and 2017, with printed sizes ranging from 40 cm x 50 cm to 2 metres x 1.5 metres.

 

The series was inspired by a collection of photographs that Macleod came across in 2008 while working in Dubai, taken by the British explorer Sir Wilfred Thesiger.

 

 

Download Press Release
Works
  • 1١ From the series Hala, 2015-2017 Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper

    1١ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

    View Detail Page

    1١ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

  • 2٢ From the series Hala, 2015-2017 Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper

    2٢ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

    View Detail Page

    2٢ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

  • 3٣ From the series Hala, 2015-2017 Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper

    3٣ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

    View Detail Page

    3٣ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

  • 4٤ From the series Hala, 2015-2017 Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching pape

    4٤ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching pape

    View Detail Page

    4٤ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper

  • 5٥ From the series Hala, 2015-2017 Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper

    5٥ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

    View Detail Page

    5٥ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

  • 6٦ From the series Hala, 2015-2017 Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper

    6٦ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

    View Detail Page

    6٦ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

  • 7٧ From the series Hala, 2015-2017 Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper

    7٧ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

    View Detail Page

    7٧ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

  • 8٨ From the series Hala, 2015-2017 Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper

    8٨ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

    View Detail Page

    8٨ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

  • 9٩ From the series Hala, 2015-2017 Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper

    9٩ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

    View Detail Page

    9٩ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

  • 10١٠ From the series Hala, 2015-2017 Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper

    10١٠ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

    View Detail Page

    10١٠ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

  • 11١١ From the series Hala, 2015-2017 Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper

    11١١ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

    View Detail Page

    11١١ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

  • 12١٢ From the series Hala, 2015-2017 Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper

    12١٢ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

    View Detail Page

    12١٢ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

  • 13١٣ From the series Hala, 2015-2017 Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper

    13١٣ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

    View Detail Page

    13١٣ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

  • 14١٤ From the series Hala, 2015-2017 Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper

    14١٤ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

    View Detail Page

    14١٤ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

  • 15١٥ From the series Hala, 2015-2017 Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper

    15١٥ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

    View Detail Page

    15١٥ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

  • 16١٦ From the series Hala, 2015-2017 Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper

    16١٦ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

    View Detail Page

    16١٦ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

  • 17١٧ From the series Hala, 2015-2017 Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper

    17١٧ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

    View Detail Page

    17١٧ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

  • 18١٨ From the series Hala, 2015-2017 Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper

    18١٨ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

    View Detail Page

    18١٨ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

  • 20٢٠ From the series Hala, 2015-2017 Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper

    20٢٠ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

    View Detail Page

    20٢٠ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

  • 21٢١ From the series Hala, 2015-2017 Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper

    21٢١ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

    View Detail Page

    21٢١ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

  • 22٢٢ From the series Hala, 2015-2017 Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper

    22٢٢ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

    View Detail Page

    22٢٢ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

  • 23٢٣ From the series Hala, 2015-2017 Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper

    23٢٣ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

    View Detail Page

    23٢٣ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

  • 24٢٤ From the series Hala, 2015-2017 Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper

    24٢٤ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

    View Detail Page

    24٢٤ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

  • 25٢٥٠ From the series Hala, 2015-2017 Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper

    25٢٥٠ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

    View Detail Page

    25٢٥٠ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

  • 26٢٦ From the series Hala, 2015-2017 Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper

    26٢٦ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

    View Detail Page

    26٢٦ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

  • 27٢٧ From the series Hala, 2015-2017 Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper

    27٢٧ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

    View Detail Page

    27٢٧ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

  • 28٢٨ From the series Hala, 2015-2017 Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper

    28٢٨ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

    View Detail Page

    28٢٨ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

  • 29٢٩ From the series Hala, 2015-2017 Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper

    29٢٩ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

    View Detail Page

    29٢٩ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

  • 30٣٠ From the series Hala, 2015-2017 Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper

    30٣٠ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

    View Detail Page

    30٣٠ 

    From the series Hala, 2015-2017

    Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle etching paper 

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Installation Views
  • Photo 15 05 2018 12 09 24 Pm 1
  • Photo 15 05 2018 12 11 55 Pm 1
  • Photo 15 05 2018 12 06 21 Pm
  • Photo 15 05 2018 12 04 53 Pm 1
  • Photo 15 05 2018 12 08 28 Pm 1
  • Photo 15 05 2018 12 01 45 Pm
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Press
  • Steve Macleod, 4٤

    July 2, 2020
  • Steve Macleod, 1 ١

    May 26, 2020
  • Steve Macleod, 13١٣

    May 11, 2020
News
  • 'Hala' by Steve Macleod at Abu Dhabi Art Fair

    'Hala' by Steve Macleod at Abu Dhabi Art Fair

    14-17 November Read more
  • PRESS: PHOTOWORKS

    PRESS: PHOTOWORKS

    Ideas Series: Steve Macleod Read more
  • Photoworks

    Photoworks

    Instagram Takeover: Steve Macleod Read more
Press release

PRESS RELEASE

 

Hala by Steve Macleod

Black Box Projects

Stand D8, Photo London, Somerset House, 17 – 20 May 2018

 

“The longer we stare at nothing, the more chance that something will appear to us, creating an unfathomable aura and thoughtful meaning.” Steve Macleod

 

Hala, a major new series of work by artist Steve Macleod, will be on show for the first time with Black Box Projects at Photo London 2018. Hala, drawn from the Arabic word for ‘aura’, comprises 30 large-scale photographs created in the United Arab Emirates, inspired by a collection of images by British explorer Sir Wilfred Thesiger.

 

In 2008, Macleod stumbled across Thesiger’s photographs made on the behalf of the Middle East Anti Locust Unit following World War II. Taken in the Empty Quarter, known by the Beduoin as ‘Rub al Khali’, Thesiger had traversed one of the most desolate landscapes on the Arabian Peninsula. However, it was not the photographs alone which drew Macleod’s interest but a comment by Thesiger: ‘In the desert, I had found a freedom unattainable in civilisation’.

 

What followed, after several years of trying to gain access to the region, was Macleod’s first series of work created outside of the UK. In 2015 he began shooting in the Al Hajar mountain range, a military exclusion zone which runs down the east of the Arabian Peninsula and is the highest and most inhospitable place in the region. It was here that Macleod discovered his own wilderness and a place to experience a true expression of nothingness.

 

Working with his large-format camera, Macleod created this new series of landscapes, devoid of human presence, which embody his Pictorialist ideology. His photographs have always been characterised by landscape’s direct relationship to his own psychological state – translating emotion through the lens using colour, subject matter and light. The brooding and dark images of his recent work have been put aside in favour of this body of work that explores colour, light and a landscape of vast emptiness. The resulting pictures speak of redemption - a journey from desert lowlands to a stark and exposed summit - an exploration towards wellness and light.  The works are archival inkjet prints on a highly textured watercolour paper, imbuing them with a tactile quality and a painterly style reminiscent of early Japanese watercolours.

 

Macleod says:

“Time stopped as I ventured through silent valley creeks and dry riverbeds. Fierce winds blew high up onto the mountain peaks as I experienced wide breath-taking vistas. I came across ancient Bedouin clan plots, low rock enclosures and pitches marked out on the ground; and small boulder caves; camouflaged and seemingly as ancient as the mountains themselves.

 

For hours I watched the light, and by searching into a void of nothingness I experienced something that went beyond photography. It felt like I was viewing an untranslatable something that lay within and beyond the mountains – I wasn’t there just to take photographs; the landscape was helping explain that even if nothing presented itself to me, there would always be something meaningful to experience.”

 

Professor Steve Macleod is a landscape photographer. He travels extensively to undertake his practice and his work interprets landscape as a metaphor to describe historical and humanist subjects that connect us with the environment we inhabit.

 

Represented exclusively by Black Box Projects in London, he exhibits internationally and his works are sought after and held in both private and public collections, including HRH the Duchess of Cambridge and HH Sheikha Fatima Bint Hazza' Al Nahyan.

 

Macleod is also an educator - a regular lecturer and speaker on photography subjects he is a respected industry professional with twenty-five years experience. He is a Visiting Professor at UCS East Anglia; a Trustee of the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST) and Lifetime member of Frontline Club in London. He also operates a successful mentorship programme for emerging artists.

 

Notes to Editors:

 

Black Box Projects

 

Black Box Projects specialises in contemporary photography and contemporary art that is created using photographic materials. The gallery is committed to working with artists who push the limits of traditional photographic practice. The gallery does not keep a permanent space, instead it arranges pop-up exhibitions in order to tailor the experience to the individual needs of the artist and the work. 

 

www.blackboxprojects.art

info@blackboxprojects.art

 

 

 

 

For further information, images or interview requests please contact:

 

Anna Kirrage

anna@blackboxprojects.art

07815934072

Download Press Release

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