THE SOMNAMBULISTS

'The Somnambulists’ is a series of photographic digital prints based on  photographs of early nineteenth century phrenological casts.The images are large format monochrome digital photographs with subtle digital adjustments which suggest an illusory sense of the original living subject of the cast.

The project is called ‘The Somnambulists’, with refererence to mesmerism, current at the time that many of the casts originate from, as the resulting portraits appear to exist in an ambiguous suspended state between life, death and sleep.

The images are created using layered digital techniques which are essentially photographic in nature to produce the illusion of skin, while still retaining the details and marks from the original plaster surface.

EXHIBITION
Shown at the Scottish National Portait Gallery
Queen Street, Edinburgh
January 22nd - April 6th, 2008.

PHOTOGRAPHY BOOK
The Somnambulists',
Dewi Lewis Publishing, 2008

SUPPORT
Juliet Gomperts Trust
Hope Scott Trust
Carnegie Trust Scotland.
Edinburgh College of Art