what does it mean to be seen?
can the working class, queer, abject, porous, neurodivergent subject fit?

zack regularly works in documenting performance and live events through photography and writing - their photographic practice is strictly analogue, using 35mm film. They have begun to develop their own film to generate darkroom prints and have greater control over their materials and outcomes - this development has been generously supported with A-N Bursary funds and training from Photofusion darkroom. zack is grateful to VSSL Studio and Future Ritual for inviting them to witness and document such profound work.

Artists displayed above in no particular order:
Benjamin Sebastian, Joseph Morgan Schofield, Selina Bonelli, Adriana Disman, Vivian Chinasa Ezugha, Anne Bean, Kelvin Atmadibrata, Samm Shackleton, Soojin Chang, Rubiane Maia, Kimvi, Sandra Johnston.

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zack is creating new photographs of Martin O’Brien taken outside of the gallery space that explores more centrally the care and control dynamics of their working relationship. The photographs aim to illustrate  the intricate dynamics found in all collaborative artistic creations. They question the delicate balance and interplay between visibility and invisibility, central and peripheral, dominance and submission, while probing the distinctions between performing for an audience and to camera, fine art photography and polaroid snapshots, controlled gallery space and the unpredictable outdoor environment, performance and its documentation. An installation of new photos, polaroids from performances, and performance ephemera will be shown once funding is secured.

zack has taken analogue photos since they were 16 when they were gifted a second-hand plastic toy camera. zack works with their archive of images from their everyday life to create collages that shift reality, question the physics of the world, and explore notions of visible reality - they are obessed with portals, error, aberration, and double exposures. zack has begun developing their own film to generate darkroom prints and have greater control over their materials and outcomes - this development has been generously supported with A-N Bursary funds and training from Photofusion darkroom.

(para)site is an ongoing, multi-stranded artistic project that reflects on class, disability, queerness & ecology through the lens of zack’s experience. The works emerge through psychogeographic explorations of sites of industrial, working-class history, where they scavenge for materials and undertake strange performative actions.

(para)site was commissioned as part of Tide Changers, a development programme for early career artists by The Thames Festival Trust and presented as part of Totally Thames 2022. VSSL Studio and Deptford X have supported the project.

Generative collages were created during the opening hours of the (para)site installation. Made up of 35mm photos of the Thames foreshore, personal archive photos and cut excerpts from DWP & NHS letters. Hand-stitched with cotton thread on recycled papers.


Exploring and photographing the foreshore environment has been a significant aspect of zack’s research. A selection of photographic prints was on display in the installation in 2022. zack continues to photograph this environment generating more photos for display, collage and to use for prints and postcards to sell.

zack was one of the participants of Change Minds in spring 2023, organised by the Bethlem Gallery and Museum of the Mind. They collaborated with a diverse group of other service users within the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust. The group’s collective aim delved into the stories of previous patients at Bethlem Hospital. Using the Victorian casebook entries as a starting point and conducting further research into the lives of their selected patient through other records and creative interpretation. zack is crafting further artworks and formulating a larger engagement project that draws from this archival work, utilizing photography and writing to give voice to those whose voices are often disregarded and disappeared.

The use of herringbone tape with blue, red, and white stitching in this collage is rooted in the strong dresses that were used in Victorian Asylums and in Bethlem. The frilled collar of a strong dress worn by zack’s selected Victorian patient, Jessie Speaight, can be seen on the left below. A regular and more commonly known article of strong clothing is the straight jacket, and while these were more commonly still in use at county asylums, Bethlem preferred the use of more “humane” strong dresses in this period. During Change Minds, zack was able to access and handle the strong clothing within the Bethlem Archive. Upon viewing the strong clothing zack was struck by their materiality as well as the sense of barbarism that emanates from such objects. To zack, the only difference between the strong dresses and a straightjacket was how pretty they could outwardly appear, with the Bethlem dresses being made to a higher quality with striped rather than plain white canvas and coloured thread around the hems. This perception of making pretty or disguising violence is something zack noted and became a focal point in the work below.

In July 2023 zack was awarded an A-N Bursary to undertake a period of self-determined professional development. These funds have afforded zack afocused period of learning to develop their film negatives and darkroom printing skills through Photofusion. Whilst learning historic photochemical & printing processes to further my practice moving into new projects.

Following this zack was awarded an Art’s Council England Developing Your Creative Practice Grant which will allow them to undertake three months of professional development focussing on their photographic practice. During this period zack will attend further training with Photofusion and Lakeside Affordable Darkroom alongside one-to-one mentoring from three artists working with photographic processes.