Dan Holdsworth 1974 –.(http://www.danholdsworth.com) is a contempory photographer who studied in London. He has had several solo and joint exhibitions. The latest is ‘Blackout’ at the Baltic Centre in Newcastle. It consists of a series series of 21 large-scale (226 x 177 cm) c-prints of the other-worldly glaciers in Iceland that have taken up to a year to process and show detailed images with a black sky and an intense contrast with the mainly white or pale blue of the glaciers. The impact of the images is enormous and clearly demonstrates the cold and isolated nature that has been photographed. The effect is magical and overwhelming when standing surrounded by them.
I have recently been reading ‘the photograph as contempory art’ by Charlotte Cotton and am trying to work out what category this image fits into. It is certainly contempory and definitely ‘art’, well, beautiful,stunning and seen hanging on a gallery wall. I think the description the fits most closely is ‘Deadpan’. This is described by Charlotte Cotton as ‘a cool, detached and keenly sharp type of photography’ with ‘monumental scale and breath-taking visual clarity.’ and ‘photography as a way of seeing beyond the limitations of individual perspective, a way of mapping the extent of forces, invisible from a single human standpoint, that govern the man-made and natural world.’ (Cotton, the photograph as contempory art, Chapter 3).
Very striking image. I haven't come across him before. I think you are right about the classification!
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