How does my work start….I would say a lot of my photos are candid or in the moment. I’m usually not really thinking about it. Most often I just look at everyday actions in people and memorialize them through my images. If there’s a specific story that I wanna tell, I’ll look for people that can help me tell those stories. I prefer shooting with everyday people, or like people I’ve interacted with in my life. People who don’t typically model, since I think it’s important that people see themselves physically in artwork.
How would you describe your current work? How does it differ from your past work?
I feel like all of my work is connected. My work is a growing extension of when I started making photographs in 2015. My current work is a labor of love, It’s memories, current moments happening in real time, and honestly experimentation. It’s a lot. I’m experimenting a lot with motion, and I’ve been into physically altering work and working with negatives and physical paper – when I started, it was mainly into just a lot of digital work, or regular film and print.
What do you take inspiration from outside of photography?
Life.
Is connection between you and the people you photograph important? How so?
Well, yes. Building a connection is important very important to me – especially with strangers – because comfortability is essential. Even with personal work, if a stranger comes in front of my camera, they already have a certain level of trust in me based on my past work. I often find myself in scenarios where people express how comfortable they are quickly. It’s in the presence and pacing of a shoot, I don’t approach with just my camera. I approach with words and conversation first and the photos come after. But with my family, I would say they really inform my photography. Just because of all of our different family dynamics, and seeing like the results of trauma and love and hate … all of it. With me documenting my families different connections with each other, sometimes I feel that I’m making work for them….. but I’m also documenting them. I want them to see themselves in images, the good and the bad. I find beauty in that.
My projects usually start from a personal experience, and build outward to a more universal concept. While I love taking photographs, my work evolves significantly in my post-production. Working in the darkroom has shaped a lot of my decisions, and I try to bring back materiality into the image through the printing process. I’m always trying to evoke a sense of permanence, even in my images that feel fleeting or unstable.
Are there any motifs prevalent in your work and what is their significance if so?
My work often reflects a nostalgic sense of memory and the way relationships evolve over time. I think of the photograph as able to reach back in time, as a way of re-experiencing the past with a new perspective. On the other hand, I try to capture ephemeral moments of connection between people; cementing the past as its happening. I have a fear that one day my memory will fail me, and as such, photography is my way of journaling and conceptualizing the world around me in deeply personal ways.
I think some of the best advice I’ve received is to take advantage of the connections I can make with fellow creatives during my undergrad years – there’s nothing like it outside of school! ISO Magazine brought me in as a freshman, and gave me the space to learn how to critically and freely think about photographs. There was no pressure, like a classroom, and the skills of working with a team came easily when it was in a fun environment.
Cernunnos in the Woods II, 2023 19 3/4 x 16″ oil and acrylic on canvas. Courtesy Daniel Cooney Fine Art.
Written by Ryan Pizarro
Luke Edward Hall, the multifaceted English artist and designer, recently joined Interview Magazine’s Mitchell Nugent in a conversation about his latest exhibition. Gardeners and Astronomers, is currently on view at Daniel Cooney Fine Art, and is the artist’s first stateside exhibition. In a crowded room that overflowed into the exterior hallway, the artist explained in a soft voice the inspirations behind the surrounding illustrations. Those in attendance were aptly plugged into the universe of Luke Edward Hall in attire that seemed to leap off of the works themselves, or from the moodboard postings from Hall’s Instagram account. The space itself lends to the storybook-esque world building of Hall’s work; to get up to the ninth floor gallery, one must take an elevator of antiquity, operated by an elevator attendant, that opens up to a sun filled floor with artists’ spaces in all directions.
March Tulips in Celery Vase II, 2023 16 1/2 x 11 1/2″ watercolor on paper. Courtesy Daniel Cooney Fine Art.Pink Light I, 2023 16 1/2 x 11 1/2″ watercolor on paper. Courtesy Daniel Cooney Fine Art.
Growing up an hour outside of London, Luke Edward Hall discussed the influence of the folklore of his English locale. Present in most of the works are hints of the English country that Hall holds so dear, with a continuous presence of florals, and colors that reference an English garden. Whimsical illustrations, with many focusing on shades of a single color, allow the viewer to step into the artist’s memories and tell a story that combines remnants of history and personal anecdotes. As an artist with a fine art career born from Instagram, the works featuring Hall’s husband, Duncan, call back to memories of homely Instagram story posts that fans of the artist can recall, or at least feel extremely familiar to. Though Hall mentioned to Nugent that he never intended to step into the world of fine art, gallerist Daniel Cooney reinforced his decision to take on Hall’s work in a fine art setting. And a fitting decision it is, as Cooney also represents artists such as Larry Stanton and Christopher Makos, whose works Hall draws direct inspiration from.
Faun in Summer Woods, 2023 23 1/4 x 16 1/2″ watercolor on paper. Courtesy Daniel Cooney Fine Art.
Taking cues from Andy Warhol, whom both Hall and Nugent cited as a source of inspiration, Luke Edward Hall has his hands on multiple creative projects, from collaborations with Diptyque, Ginori 1735, and Rubelli, decorating restaurants and hotels, to starting his own clothing line, Chateau Orlando, in 2022. Hall’s entrance into fine art exhibitions is an exciting step for an artist who himself and the work he creates feels very of the moment yet at the same time, nostalgic and familiar, similar to the wool sweaters he sells and the interior spaces he designs.
Gardeners and Astronomers is on view at Daniel Cooney Fine Art through October 28.
