Art / Exhibitions
Beer can pinhole photos of Southmead Hospital
Justin Quinnell’s photographs of Southmead Hospital’s redevelopment are a study in patience.
The photos, which are on exhibit at the hospital from Wednesday, May 4, were taken using homemade beer can pin hole cameras.
For the five years of the Brunel building’s redevelopment at Southmead Hospital, Quinnell posted around 20 cameras inside discarded beer cans around the site. Each photograph, taken using photographic paper and a tiny hole in the can, was left open to exposure for six months.
is needed now More than ever
The result was a series of electric, colourful photographs that document a space in transition.
“It all evolved around the passing of time,” says Quinnell. “All of Bristol has grown up with Southmead Hospital. Both my children were born there.
“This was an opportunity to capture the destruction of the old with the birth of the new throughout the seasons from winter to summer equinox.”
The exhibition will feature the photographs as well as their original negatives, a selection of the cameras used (i.e. the ones that weren’t destroyed by seagulls during the process), images of the cameras in situ and information about how beer can photography works.
The photos will be on display from May 4 to September 23.
Read more: Artist of the Month: Chuck Elliott
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