Flood

About the exhibition

The photographic sequences presented in Flood investigated image narratives and practices of looking at photography. The title refers to sudden changes in environments and their impact on conventional behaviours. This uncertainty happens in both the world of the image and in the experience of looking at images. The photographs create a tension between the conscious and the unconscious and create the conditions for ‘unreadable’ moments to emerge. The strategies of sequencing deployed in this installation create arbitrary and porous photographic forms.

Intended to signify natural movement, it (the photograph) only produces a petrified analogue of it. It shows an unperformed movement that refers to an impossible posture. The paradox is that in reality the movement has indeed been performed, while in the image the posture is frozen.

Thierry De Duvé

About the researcher

Richard Mulhearn joined the University of Huddersfield in 2015 and is course Leader on the BA (Hons) Photography programme. He was awarded an MA in Photography at the London College of Communication in 2012 having previously graduated from Manchester School of Art in 1995. His early career as a freelance photographer was predominantly in the music industry, producing sleeve artwork and promo images for publication, and then later in film production as part of a design group working on title sequences and photographic stills work.

Mulhearn is currently engaged in a practice-based PhD at University of Huddersfield. His research interests include photographing unconscious gestures and acts, ideology and subjectivity, narrative and sequence, ‘The Photobook’ and collaborative approaches to making and disseminating photographic work. He is an external examiner at various UK institutions, and a previous member of the executive of the Association for Photography in higher education (APHE).