DAVID ABRAHAMS
Born in Leeds West, Yorkshire, British photographer David Abrahams has been living and working in London for more than a decade, regularly taking on international projects that see him travel across Europe and Asia. Falling into still life photography in 2016, he works closely with brands Aesop, Chloe, Jo Malone, elsewhere regularly contributing to publications such as Wall Street Journal, British Vogue, Vogue Italia, The Colour Journal, 212 Magazine, M Le Monde, Rika Magazine and Dior Magazine.
Previously signed with East co and later M.A.P., today Abrahams works independently, shooting primarily with analogue cameras and printing everything in-house at his darkroom in North London. His aesthetic, which champions tight framing and embraces the irregular nature of film photography, is largely informed by a mood or a feeling: the idea of making physical the intangible. Having travelled to Japan a number of times previously – always for work, he describes the relationship as “professional tourism” – the exhibition with Have A Butchers marks his debut solo show, and his first time sharing such personal work.
KYUSHU
EXHIBITION AT HAVE A BUTCHERS
31ST AUGUST - 8TH SEPTEMBER 2023
“It’s looking at the macro details of things you might otherwise gloss over, like a shop front, the side of a car or a statue.”
For his first UK solo exhibition, David Abrahams revisits and reframes work made in and around the coastal city of Karatsu on Japan’s most southerly island, Kyushu, with 60 previously unpublished images hand printed at his North London darkroom for the show at London gallery, Have A Butchers.
Riffing on the imperfect, the British photographer’s work embraces blurs and champions the otherwise ordinary, while his preoccupation with honing in on specific features means the moss that envelopes a statue and the plastic bags that hang in a fish market are magnified, celebrated alongside imposing temples and rich landscapes. Underscoring Abrahams’ non-linear approach to narrative is this fortuitous collection of images: sharing geography and synched by occasion, each photograph is a standalone impression. Brought together however, they appeal to a vast cross section of interests and sensibilities.
Shot over ten days in January 2023, on a trip for which he was largely alone, travelling independently after wrapping an editorial assignment centred on portraits of local artisans for Wall Street Journal, the images presented at Have A Butchers instead foreground Abrahams’ particular sense of curiosity, marrying his aesthetic interests with his affinity for history, and employing his distinctive tight crops. It’s this pursuit for beauty and singular awareness of framing, rather than any prescribed cultural study, that the photographer centres in the work.
“There is a strong sense of observation from a space of isolation, and as such these images take on a sort of voyeuristic, solitary approach. As a photographer there is always an intention: when you frame something it's always about what you are trying to show or depict. There’s a fine line between documenting, idealising and culturally appropriating the place you have photographed.”
With distance and a new, more personal context, Abrahams leans into a distorted notion of a recollection, approaching the series as if recalling a dream or a faraway memory. Printing the images by hand, he explores a range of hues and expressive tones, that united showcase the rich palette of Karatsu. Mirroring his admiration for the city and the spaces he was introduced to at the start of the year, the photographer adopts a highly considered approach to processing, exaggerating the colours by printing each image five or six times before a final outcome is determined.
“It’s been nice to return to the moments I cherished while travelling, and have the time and space to look at it almost as a distant memory or a dream. Taking out the original context, and exploring the images I was naturally drawn to.”