Experiments with long film exposures informed the screen tests in my recent ‘Cartes de Visites’ series with BEEF members exhibition at Centre of Gravity, Bristol Oct-Dec 2020.
For BEEF’s Department of Moving Images I conducted a series of long exposure portraits. These may lead on to future portrait work. “The poor sensitivity to light in early photography meant that moving subjects were required to remain as still as possible for the prolonged exposure times. Warhol appears to reference this dynamic in his 1960s Screen Tests , yet in this series the condition of stillness is placed in tension with the medium of the moving image. The vast quantity of over 500 screen tests is also a seeming nod to the 19th c fashion for collectibles. During the 1850s the socially mobile posed for long photographic exposures and then exchanged these selfie calling cards with other members of the bourgeoisie”.
Vicky Smith 