Highlights of Darkrooms Magazine... Kit Young
A special newsletter highlighting an outstanding project from one of the previous Darkroom Magazine issues
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Because I like to see as many photography enthusiasts as possible enjoying outstanding work, I decided to highlight one of the past projects featured in an earlier issue of Darkrooms Magazine.
Today I highlight the English photographer Kit Young.
Enjoy!
Rêverie is a word of French origin, representing the idea of daydreaming, a state of introspection, a kind of waking dream where the mind wanders freely.
Just like in nocturnal dreams, from which we often wake up confused, not knowing when and where we were, in this daydreaming we can also confuse what we imagine with reality. Only what we feel or the emotions we experience remain clear in our memory in both states.
Perhaps it is due to this detachment from the mundane that, starting from distinct places like Paris, Chicago, the Isle of Skye, Venice, New York, or Norfolk, Kit Young's unique vision, combined with a refined aesthetic, transports us to an atmosphere of mystery and beauty. It is therefore understandable that his work, usually divided into series, is presented here as a single body, united by a singular and unmistakable visual pattern.
The set of photographs presented in Rêverie challenges the perception and memory of those who see them, leading us to question whether we are merely spectators of a reality experienced by others, or whether we ourselves are part of those images. Suddenly it is as if we were there, with our subconscious experiencing foreign memories, appropriating them, intoxicated by the dreamlike atmosphere into which we are transported.
These are images that stay with us. We close our eyes and can still see them. We do not need to know the where and when they were taken, what is behind them, or what narrative they belong to; it is as if they belong to us, speaking to our innermost being in a profound and unexpected way.
Contradicting Roland Barthes with his well-known ‘noeme’ of photography ‘that-has-been’, whereby photography is understood as the possibility of revisiting a fragment of time and space that we can never experience again, we find in Kit's work not a representation of a time and space, but rather countless possibilities. Kit’s photographs are a portal to a free place, which appears different each time we see it; a place where we can see something new and create different memories, as if each time we visit his images was the first.
With a poetic and evocative approach that cuts across his entire body of work, Kit does not see his photographs as complete at the moment of their capture. He is passionate about the work he develops in the darkroom; it is there that he pushes his technique and mastery to the limit, constantly challenging himself, inspiring him in the search for new themes for his photographs.
Looking at his work, we may come across a misty, dreamlike landscape, where nature seems to breathe in silence; or the whirlwind of life in a bustling city, interrupted only by solitary figures; or even an intimate and nostalgic portrait, which immediately awakens curiosity and contemplation in us.
Rêverie is precisely this, a delicate dance between the real and the imaginary, where through seemingly unrelated moments in time and space, we are transported to a parallel place, where Kit Young's unique sensibility masterfully transforms the fleeting into the ethereal.
Click images in the gallery to enlarge.
See more of Kit Young’s work at his website or Instagram
This brilliant project is one of the 8 fascinating projects in issue #5
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Till next week,
I love Kit’s work, old school darkroom art that you don’t see these days
Bonkers