What's your Fantasy?
Now representing The Special Photographer's Archive
This unique archive of contemporary fine art photography was curated especially for Bridgeman, containing thousands of images with completely timeless appeal.
The collection grew out of the worldwide movement in photography in the late 20th Century which rebelled against the sterile perfection that photography had become. Masters degree students in photography departments of the most prestigious art colleges were exposed to all kinds of manipulative techniques and processes to create fantasy pictures and escape from the most obvious pictures of reality, and most of the contributors here are the graduates of that time.
Poppies, overhead view by Vale & Betts Ewan Fraser is one such student who was encouraged to experiment, getting involved with different media and disciplines including sculpture, painting and illustration as well as travelling to Italy and Greece to see the ancient murals and frescos firsthand. He found that a more artistic abstract approach was needed as the rigidity of traditional photography seemed unfulfilling.
“We began to break the rules using the wrong chemistry, film stocks, even the wrong lighting…layering negatives together, using positives and negatives and producing huge prints of incredibly long exposures.”
Photography as an art form was growing up.
View the The Special Photographer's Archive