**Basking in the neon glow**

Last Thursday evening found me in The Melbourne in Oakwood, North Leeds, for the opening of my first solo exhibition. I had spent weeks preparing for it, selecting the images I wanted to include, printing some myself at Aire Street Darkroom, and sending some to Fresh Aire for Alec to work his magic with. I was extremely lucky to have my pal Kieran (Third Eye Signs) hang it all for me so the layout and spacing were both on point. To be fair I did pass him the frames so I wasn’t entirely useless.
Initially I had wanted to incorporate a bit of everything I do, but in the end I decided that might be too much for the space so instead had three main themes: brutalist archictecture which blended seamlessly into moody landscapes, and then some portrait work.
Adding images of bands and live music would have been nice, but would have made the overall show a bit of a muddle.
*Image: Stephen Cole @arrestingimages*

*Image: Stephen Cole @arrestingimages*

It was a very busy night and I was so grateful to everyone who took the time to come down and check it out (and especially those people who bought something on the night – you have excellent taste). It’s one thing to post your work on Instagram and look at the number of likes you get, but it’s something else to see people’s reactions in real life, and to talk to them about what an image means to them. Sometimes their response is very much aligned with what I had in mind when I created the image, and sometimes it’s completely different, and I find that very exciting.

There were two images that kept popping up when people told me what their favourites were. One was this picture of a concrete staircase underneath the Roger Stevens building. I am very drawn to this specific spot and have made numerous photographs of it with several different cameras. I love the way the limited available light makes the details of the stairs and the handrails come out quite slowly. And the lighter area at the top requires a little more examination to work out exactly what is there.

This particular iteration was shot with my 60 year old Rolleiflex 3.5f, a medium format twin lens reflex camera. I shot it on Kodak Tri-X 400 (in homage to Vivian Meyer) and developed it myself. The one on display in The Melbourne was printed by Fresh Aire and formed part of the “Home” exhibition by Holmfirth Photo Social last year. I do have multiple darkroom prints of this, however, if anyone would like one.

The other one that resonated with several people was this portrait of the amazing Kelsey Wolfe. I had this idea in mind based on an image I remember from a copy of the NME in 1990. Kelsey and I were working on a post-punk themed shoot, and so I brought a bunch of records from my collection which were appropriate to the theme and which I thought would stand out to other vinyl nerds. Then Kelsey arranged herself amongst them and disappeared into her headspace whilst I teetered on a ladder and tried not to drop a camera on her face.

It was a great shoot and I was so happy with the results. I managed to get several versions of this as I was working with digital, colour medium format, black and white 35mm, and colour Polaroid. I am often guilty of bringing too many cameras with me to a session. One day I might learn. But probably not today.

The exhibition will be up for another 5 weeks, so I am going to take the opportunity to pop down there for a pint and to look at the work. It’s made me so happy to see it up there as a collection. I must also say a big thank you to Stephen Cole (@arrestingimages) who captured the images of the show I have shared here. Also an enormous thank you to Eve at The Melbourne for asking me in the first place, Sam at the Melbourne for greenlighting it, and of course Kieran for making it look so amazing on the wall.

Making an exhibition of myself

DSD x

Making an exhibition of myself

DSD x

DSD x The Melbourne