SilverFish – ONE

Featuring the works of:

ONE  - Essay by Rachel Brodie

The project ONE was conceived as “a strict and simple production”. Prevent a diverse group of talents from becoming unruly by imposing just the one rule; capture one image only. The resulting group of images forms a cohesive presentation without imposing the conformity of a theme.

“ONE” is one part of alone. But alone doesn’t mean lonely. Lonely is the exclusion of others. In ONE the photographer is alone with one perfect single moment, captures it and then shares it with a trusted audience.

SilverFish group exhibitions have always involved compositions created by individual members each grouping their own various images. So there is vulnerability in the selection and presentation of just one image to stand on it’s own. Without a context what can just one image reveal and how do you choose the one most revealing?

In some instances it could be easy. Eadweard J. Muybridge, scientist and photographer, proved that a horse can fly because in all of his many frames he captured one showing it with all 4 legs in the air. The SilverFish ONE images are more contemplative, the decisive moment is as subtle as catching your breath.

ONE is a millisecond, a sliver of a personal moment. But if you catch it you can look at it forever. A giddy glance down at a perfect pair of shoes. Being perched on the edge of water. Being perched on the window ledge of a big city hotel. It is a stop-action of small nature marching up a stem or shrivelling to a whorl of faded colours. ONE is a moment of astonishment at the hugeness of weather, trees and rock, the strength and beauty of architecture.

Select just one.

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ONE is a study in contrast — an exercise simultaneously in exploration and restraint. SilverFish generally do not make requirements or restrictions regarding framing from members, so ONE’s strict and simple production restrains some of us in an unfamiliar conformity. Yet, at the same instant in which uniformity is imposed, it disappears. Frames become a non-issue as the idiosyncrasies of framing fade away and composition becomes more evident. ONE invites comparison and contrast, sympathy and disagreement between and amongst images. There is play between the solitary and solidarity.

ONE promises to explore essence: Solitary images without frames ironically reference framing; A “uniform” presentation contrasts individual approach; singular expressions both resist and embrace coalescence. As Silverfish, we are used to synergy evolving from many perspectives taken on a topic — our work converses with itself. If the statement of our work is normally discussion, then ONE is our haiku.