About
Bio:
Shayne House is a multidisciplinary artist based in Cornwall, working across photography, moving image, illustration, printmaking and music. Trained in film photography, letterpress and painting, he blends darkroom craft with experimental technique to explore nature, the environment and a sense of place. His work has been exhibited in Cornwall, Devon, London and China, and his commercial work has included the Eden Project, The Do Lectures, RefuAid and the BBC.
Statement:
I divide my time between commercial projects and a studio practice that moves freely between photography, moving image, illustration, printmaking, music and more. I trained in 35mm film photography and darkroom technique at Cornwall College, typesetting and letterpress at Plymouth College of Art, and painting at St Ives School of Painting. That formal grounding underpins work that otherwise resists sitting still in any one discipline.
My work explores nature, the environment and a sense of place. For me, photography is a medium like any other, a way of communicating much as words are, and that frees me to approach it playfully, treating the photograph as a physical object as much as an image. I balance technical precision with hands-on manipulation of cameras, processes and chemistry: making in-camera multiple exposures, altering instant film by hand and cross-processing slide film. The results often sit somewhere between representation and abstraction, and at times I set out to unsettle the viewer and raise questions for the senses. My most recent collection, Seasons Change, uses these techniques to look at transitional moments in the natural world.
The ocean has been a constant. Early work with Jacques Cousteau's La Spirotechnique, and later with surf brands such as Gul, Bilbo Surfboards and Newquay's Revolver, drew me into a culture defined by its relationship with the sea. That pull runs through much of what I make, including my film Handplane to Rivermouth, which screened at the inaugural London Surf Film Festival.
Music is another thread. I've performed and recorded with founding members of the Imperfect Orchestra and with musicians in the South West, Germany and France. I contributed to Roger and Brian Eno's Mixing Colours project and created the photographic artwork for Bryde's single Less.
Words and pictures have shaped most of my working life, from prepress design and copywriting to storyboarding and self-shooting films. In my commercial work I'm drawn to purpose-led organisations such as the Eden Project, RefuAid, StreetVet and Transformation Food Banks.
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