Robin Hunter Blake is a British-American photographer and director based in London. His work is deeply romantic and enquires upon values of identity and philosophy, using the camera as a tool to decode and search for the nuances that make up the human experience. The pieces are about passion, anger, lust and fervour.
Robin Graduated with a first from the University of the Arts London in July 2021.
His works reference Simon Stampfer’s stroboscopic discord of 1833, which was notably used in the work of Dr. Harold Edgerton (1903-1990). It is a highly developed technical feet, which used in Robin’s context only enhances the psychological value of the work. His practice also references Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904) and his description of motion and deconstruction of movement. The scientific and mathematical value of Muybridge’s work had a great impact on Modernist and Impressionists artists like Rodin (1840-1917) and Edgar Degas (1834-1917). Edgerton’s ‘Chronophotography’ was collected by Rodin, the sculptor also commissioned photographs of his sculptures This use and play with motion is inherent to Robin Hunter Blake’s work, which consequently have an incredible sculptural quality.
Robin shoots almost exclusively on black and white film, where he makes his images using traditional developing techniques, his process is tangible and classical. His method of making art is pure and poetic, which is reflected in the nature of the works.
In his series “Feast”, he creates scientific abstract experimentations with light, shadow and movement. The camera becomes the paintbrush, used to manipulate the light of the subject captured, rather than taking its direct image. There is an incredible sense of poetry and rhythm in Robin’s works.
The work is about Love and its irrevocable push and pull dynamics. Robin uses the movements in boxing as an echo to the emotionally theatrical values which love holds. His compositions are dynamic, blurred and spirited. These intimate battles are about passion, anger, lust and fervour. In his most recent body of work, Robin investigates the magnetic essence of desire, its self incurred battles and devotional zest: The works are about the exultation and dichotomies that bind us all together. Robin’s images explore the battles that the modern world faces, the works are simultaneously fights and embraces, they are tender and melancholic. Lizards can shed their tails to escape predators.
“Love, at many times found itself holding the hand of chaos during many of my formative years and because of this I have chosen to reclaim both of them.”
Robin’s photography is sculptural in its use of light, the artist depicts simultaneous angles, each work is a story of deconstructed motion and emotion. The abstracted nature of the works resembles Rorschach inkblot charts, a projective psychological test which explores questions of perception and used to examine an individual’s characteristics and emotional functioning. Robin’s work visually dissects these discussions by setting his sitters on the stage which is his studio.
Robin’s work has been featured in may acclaimed publications, including Vanity Fair, The Rake, Rabbits Foot, the Evening Standard and HERO magazine. He had a solo show in Venice in the prestigious Palazzo Polignac, during the 2022 Biennale.
