Francesca Blakeman

Francesca Blakeman is an artist who recently graduated from Manchester School of Art in Fine Art & Art History. Blakeman is interested in the history of domestic photography and how we have recorded our surroundings and memories via taking photographs. Over the last two years Blakeman’s practice has revolved around found images - in particular family photographs, which she manipulates the narrative of the images to emphasise the lack of knowledge in which we have when we acquire a found photograph. Forcing the viewer to question how Blakeman does when she first looks at a found photograph: Who took the photograph? Where was it taken? What date was it taken? Who’s in the photograph?


Lost Memories

All of the images that Blakeman uses are found images which have been taken on multiple different people’s holidays throughout the last 60 years. She uses bright colours to represent each person in the photograph, disguising their identity to further questioning of who might be pictured. Creating images filled with colour in a holiday setting, the viewer may first think nostalgia of past memories on holiday but her work has a much deeper meaning. The viewer see’s coloured silhouettes which represent people who once stood in a happy memory, memories which are now lost, given up or misplaced by the original owner and now in the possession of a stranger.

http://francescablakeman.myportfolio.com

UKYA PROJECTS:

UKYA City Takeover: Nottingham 2019