Craig Hull's
extraordinary and unique
work of double exposures was just published
on one of Hungary's greatest online portals, 444.hu!
444 is a relatively
young portal with the bravest journalists who are edgy, not afraid to be
sarcastic and cut to the point when it comes to politics and social issues.
Also, they have a great sense of humor.
It is one of the most
progressive media of this difficult little country.
In one word: the best
place for Craig to be published.
The best part is how
Craig’s pictures started a discussion in the comment feed. People are actually
fighting over what art is – what could be better than that?!
Thanks to 444.
"I have always been an advocate of double exposure photography, it has been an interesting middle ground between straight documentary photography and something abstract. Its a link into a creative world. I don't think that all photographers are artists, and I think about my placement in these creative field, so for me its a link into making something a little more artistic while still holding on to ideas of social commentary, architecture and street photography.
I recently had an exhibition in Szimpla of double exposures, but completely done using medium format cameras, and a collaboration of me and a friend (Russell Squires - UK), film swapping between two countries and never talking about what we should or have photographed.
A photograph of a texture can be difficult not to make it boring, and the same with architecture, but if you can find a way to combine the two then it becomes interesting, whether you see it as art or even like it - but you have to delve deeper into these photographs as they are not the most obvious straight away. There are hidden areas that need to be searched for, sections and melt into others, or details picked out by hints of overlapping layers. This, as I thought more and more about my project, is how I see Budapest, and every subsequent city since then when trying to multiple expose them. A disjointed, juxtaposition, never perfect city that hides in the curvatures of car windows, or overlapping images in the cities windows - the hidden details when you look up mixed with the pockets of shadows that are now allowed to breathe.
Double Expose Europe is a project completely made by using my slow, secondhand iPhone 4 and 2 or 3 different double exposure apps - free of course - and then shared on Instagram and other social media sites. The project only recently became a project but I have been taking these photographs for over a year. Ever since I got my first iPhone, I never wanted to use Instagram or many other apps as I consider myself a photographer's photographer (I was taught analogue and will use it until I die) so to me, instagram was a fake, crappy way to show people's daily lives through unicorn coloured filters. I still decided i needed to be part of it, as I noticed i am missing out on a large part of society and photography, even if you don't agree to it. So I used it but just for sharing these images - I have a website for professional stuff, a flickr account for experimental things and Instagram for things I didnt expect to receive commissions from or people take seriously. This mixed with the double exposure apps and plasticated, unhealthy filters meant I could show Budapest in this fantasy land of two cities, a representation of my personal journey through the city and the thoughts it gives me. I was always afraid of pigeon holing myself into one style of photography, so this allows me social commentary, architecture, shooting-from-the-hip street photography, portraiture et al, but while I was looking this way, Double Exposures pigeon holed me."
Craig Hull
