Liza Dracup: Light Matter

Event description

Light Matter captures natural forms illuminated by artificial light. The life and work of the Victorian scientist Joseph Swan was a huge inspiration on the artist. Sunderland-born Swan was the inventor of the incandescent electric light bulb. This invention changed our experience and view of the world forever.  

Liza Dracup’s work draws on his spirit of enquiry, observation, curiosity and experimentation. Her photographic response captures visual nuances, details hidden to the eye. It reveals details of natural forms often unnoticed, illuminated by photography and artificial light.

She selects subject matter from a wide variety of flora from the English landscape. The photographs explore visual ambiguities challenging traditional ideas of photography as a mirror to human vision. The work uses a hybrid of traditional film and digital photography. It create images infused with visual excitement and wonder. It offers us an unconventional view of our natural world.

Light Matter was commissioned by NEPN.

Image credit: LM14, from Light Matter by Liza Dracup, 2019