EXHIBITION: ANDREW MILLS | BEGINNER’S MIND

Beginner’s mind. A small presentation of photographs.
Andrew Mills

Monday 29th April – Saturday 1st June 2019

In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few. Shunryu Suzuki.

After studying graphic design and photography in Southampton College of Art, I entered the world of advertising and editorial photography running studios and my own businesses for 20 years.

The experience gave me the tools to teach photography as a senior lecturer on a degree course in a university where I studied to expand my own education and knowledge of art and photography and gave me the opportunity to develop my own ideas and style.

My photography now pivots on a small range of ongoing projects and themes some of which are self-evident and others which I find challenging to describe as well as accomplish.

I’m an admirer of documentary photographers such as those from the Magnum group or the National Geographic and when travelling I’m seeking to capture ambience and a sense of place, the art in the scene, juxtapositions, humour, difference, emotion and the unique.

Photography enhances my experience of life. Everything, as experience, becomes a possibility for photography.

Living beings affect everything. The way we fit our environment never ceases to intrigue me and it’s rare to find somewhere like the Antarctic which is in many ways untouched by humans, however, the act of observing it can only be from a single defined experience.

Every interaction is unique, seen once and then gone. Everything is different from everything else.

These photographs are from as far away as the Antarctic, Japan and New York, and as close as Southampton and the Isle of Wight. Japanese snow monkeys, kimonos, tori gates and people waiting for shinkansen – some of these are attempts to emulate other great artists, Hokkusai, Hopper, Penn and Lorca-diCorsa.

Antarctica appeals to me by its vastness and pristine desolation. Attempting to capture this seems to be futile, not knowing where to look or where to start when descending from being awestruck to the practicality of choosing a lens.

The act of observation, noticing stuff and forming it into compositions is mostly what these photographs are about and describing everything as a valuable subject – a possibility in the beginner’s mind.

Andrew Mills MA MEd CertEd ARPS Photographer and lecturer. www.photomills.co.uk

All framed photographs are priced at £100 each and available for sale via the Box Office, payment can be made by cash, credit/debit card or cheque made payable to University of Southampton. Once paid for artwork may be collected from the Box Office after the exhibition closes.

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