Martin Newth’s photographic, video and sculptural installations explore and emphasise the processes and apparatus of production. He employs numerous processes including very long exposures and purpose-built camera obscuras to make experimental works that explore the material nature of photography, tracing the historical roots of the photographic process as well as raising questions about the aesthetics of the medium in the 21st century.  In contrast to the majority of photographs, which invite the viewer to read pictures from a screen or page, Newth’s work slows down the process of reading images and offers an engagement with the material nature of the photograph and the performance of its production. The relationship between technology and control is a central concern in his practice. Martin Newth purposefully avoids the control promised by technological advancement, instead embracing the potential for chance and accident, providing traces of the works’ production. Newth’s works sets up a tension between old and new. It has its roots in early, experimental modes of photography but, instead of being nostalgic for the loss of analogue, it deploys an engagement with the way photographic images are made to explore the conditions that inform how we experience images and objects now.

Martin Newth, who is based in London, where he is Programme Director of Fine Art at Chelsea College of Arts, has exhibited his work in solo and group exhibitions in the UK and abroad. Recent solo exhibitions include: Rezension – Skulptur, Objekt, Apparat at the MEWO Kunsthalle, Germany; Re-view at Photofusion, London; Material Matters at the Gerald Moore Gallery, London; Sentinel (South) at The Gallery, The Arts University College Bournemouth; Ausblick at Axel Lapp Projects, Berlin and Slow Burn at Focal Point Gallery, Southend. Group exhibitions include: In Place of Architecture at the Bonington Gallery, Nottingham; Troubled Waters at The Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei;  Andmoreagain at the Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool; and Menschen und Orte at The Kunstverein Konstanz, Germany.