Robert John Henderson - In Praise of Darkness and Light
6th July - 8th September 2019
Talk and Reception: Saturday 6th July, 3pm.
This work explores the experience of darkness and light. Its focus is the city, the streets, lanes, canals, rivers, the open places of the public sphere, the edges of private life. It also explores a personal sense of darkness in the hidden, the shadows, the internal and the unconscious human world. For Henderson, it speculates on the experience of being human and of inhabiting both of these worlds, and continuing a process of questioning, reflecting and making what is hidden conscious.
The working process has been an iterative sequence of stravaging city streets, observing, reflecting, dreaming, and surfacing from the unconscious, and of course making images and writing. A series night walks and image making across a number of cities in Europe punctuates his ongoing research. The cities are not identified but rather merge to form a single city that represents the author’s own experience and relationship with darkness, light and the city.
The work found its form in this exhibition as the outcome of an exchange residency in 2018 between Street Level and Ostkreuz Association, supported by Festival 2018 and British Council (Berlin).
An exhibition minigraph is available with an article by John McDougall.
In Praise of Darkness and Light will also take form in a limited run book which will also include a number of poems by Henderson. A book signing will take place during the reception on July 6th.
Robert John Henderson is a photographer, psychologist and leadership coach based in Glasgow working internationally. While completing an apprenticeship as a butcher Robert gained university entrance to study psychology. He currently works with individuals and organisations to grow leadership in everyone and everywhere. In the last 10 years he had completed a diploma and an honours degree in fine art photography and now has an art-focused photography practice.
Photographic Parallels
This work was printed and produced in 2019 and is the outcome of an exchange residency initiated by Street Level Photoworks (Glasgow) in partnership with Ostkreuz Association (Berlin). The wider cooperation also included exchange exhibitions in Glasgow at Trongate 103, the Goethe Institute and Hillhead Library as part of the Season of Photography in Scotland 2018, and at aff Galerie and Das Giftraum in Berlin as part of Monat der Fotografie OFF. It was supported by Festival 2018, the Goethe Institute (Glasgow), and British Council (Berlin).
Further Resources
Photographic Parallels - Residency Exchange Blog
3D Tour
All Images: © Robert Henderson
