Phoebe Kiely- They Were My Landscape

I graduated from Manchester School of Art in 2015. In April 2016 I was featured in the exhibition Pieces of You at Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool with my project They Were My Landscape. I was not only one of the youngest photographers they have ever shown in an exhibition but I was their first photographer in residence, where they built me a custom made darkroom allowing me to work prolifically for almost three months, showing three different edits during the exhibition.

Since my exhibition at Open Eye Gallery my photographs have featured in Portrait of Britain and the British Journal of Photography. I was also shortlisted for the Brighton Photo Fringe Solo Show.

In the last three months I have been nominated by Julian Germain for Mack’s First Book Award, invited back to Manchester School of Art to present a speech and conduct portfolio presentations. Antler Press Publications is also working on a zine which will be showing very recently shot work from a project I recently created in Glasgow.

They Were My Landscape was a project I never thought I would title. It is an archive of moments. During university everyone was grappling for something to find meaning in their work. Everyone panicked. Knowing images are being produced on mass every single day, they worried that their images meant nothing.

I believe I found a way. I found my view on the world to have the unique quality that is not seen in others work of today. Working solely with one type of film, one type of paper; it allowed everything to sit on an equal level, every image printed could be considered for the final edit. Towards the end of the year I was forced to create an edit. Edits were never an easy thing for me in the beginning. It meant committing to a series which had the potential to change as soon as new work surfaced.

Open Eye Gallery in Liverpool picked up on the work during my end of year show, which led to an exhibition alongside five other artists. The premise of the exhibition was how ‘Each of the six artists share a curiosity in exploring how we gather and make meaning of our experiences. When we choose to photograph a moment, perhaps we imagine looking at it again in the future...we make it part of our story.' Open Eye molded the gallery to fit my work by building a darkroom for my sole use. This allowed me to print compulsively for two months, which was an absolute luxury. The most interesting element of this was that I not only was able to create numerous pieces of work, I was able to continuously change the edit on the walls of the gallery. In essence the work is heavily documentary. However, it is the constructed edit which allows me even more control. I am able to lead the viewer through the sequence.

It is a secret, not everything is clear. This does not stand as a dairy. It’s a constructed reality, with a dream like sense, giving the viewer a chance to see a fraction of a life. It is not based around a concept, it is a compulsion which I have found myself entangled in. The world around me is what I look for. I feel like my sense of self is presented within the images. A reminder of mortality.

Instagram: @phoebe_kiely

Website: www.phoebekiely.com