RADIANT SOLITUDE (2023)
Luke Foley-Martin is an experimental abstract artist and established professional photographer. Luke is also a member of the AIPA (The Advertising and Illustrative Photographers Association) and CPS (Canon Professional Service).
Luke Foley-Martin is an experimental abstract photographer known for his vibrant explorations of colour and light. His work reimagines reality through a mixture of hand-made darkroom colour prints and film photography, creating striking and unconventional visuals that challenge perceptions.
Foley-Martin is also an accomplished commercial photographer with an extensive experience in the world of visual storytelling. With an ongoing presence in this industry for 11 years, his vibrant and experimental approach to work has garnered attention in the fashion and advertising industries, both locally and internationally. Luke's dedication to his craft has established him as a prominent figure in contemporary photography and art.
10 JULY - 21 AUGUST 2023
Extending his recent photographic work evoking celestial bodies, Luke Foley-Martin’s latest exhibition Radiant Solitude, explores connections between our concepts of outer space and the ‘inner space’ of self-reflection.
The ongoing series features photographs of the sun positioned alongside abstract images made in the darkroom, exploring spaces between the real and imagined. Given it is their primary source of light, photographers almost always consider the sun, yet they seldom directly photograph it as a subject. Sun gazing is sometimes enacted as part of spiritual or religious practices, or as an alternative therapy, most often near dawn or dusk. However, it is considered extremely dangerous, and impossible to look at the sun for any length of time without damaging one’s vision or going blind.
Foley-Martin’s work often begins as handmade RA-4 colour prints produced using experimental darkroom techniques. In this exhibition, his work leans into the unpredictable and intuitive nature of working ‘blind’ in the darkroom, to create more complex compositions which further incorporate the role of chance. Here, an analogy between the darkroom and the depths of outer space is foregrounded. In Radiant Solitude, the isolation of the darkroom offers a space to contemplate the self and the orbit of others.
