Fungi Luminograms is an ongoing series of photo works, each one a unique print, made using the camera-less luminogram technique.  The series has evolved gradually over the past few years, and has become a way of bringing together my photographic practice with the day to day running of my mushroom based street food business Sporeboys.

 

The mushroom stall is all about being out on the street – and that suits the artist in me as much as it does the mushroom chef.  There’s something about the ebb and flow of street life – the busy times and the quiet times, the familiar faces and the strangers.  Perhaps through this connection to the street, I have become more interested in news events and how a news story develops throughout the day.  Sometimes an item resonates with me for some particular reason – and I find myself responding visually.  The inspiration for each work can be completely different to the next and the continuity is for me to create my own interpretation of the event, using this very specific palette of fungi material, rich in texture, shape and colour.

Once I’m in the darkroom with the mushrooms, I have to work quickly, because as with many forms of photography, there’s a sense of urgency. The process of creating the luminogram rapidly causes the destruction of the delicate original mushroom design - each successful  print is all that remains.  The inspiration for the work, and the materials are as fleeting, ephemeral and transient as each other.