Antony Cairns

Exhibited in prestigious collections such as the Victoria & Albert Museum and La MEP, Antony Cairns offers a singular vision of the city, his true muse. Born in London in 1980, Cairns develops an experimental approach influenced by “80s futurism”. His nocturnal works capture the artificial light of major metropolises such as London, Tokyo and Los Angeles, revealing an urban landscape in transformation.

Between the late 1990s and early 2000s, as London underwent a phase of rapid urban development, Cairns committed himself to documenting this mutation. A nocturnal vagabond, he explored urban texture by inverting his black-and-white negatives into positives, then printing his images using obsolete digital technologies. Far from high definition, his photographs diffuse a blurred light, evoking Russian filmmaker Andrei Moskvin's “darkness of the foggy night”.

Cairns combines silver film and darkroom processes with innovative media. His works take shape on gelatin silver film applied to aluminum, broadcast via modified e-ink players or even on vintage computer punch cards, fusing a retro-technical aesthetic with contemporary technologies.

In 2015, he won the Hariban Prize, a recognition that opened the doors to the Benrido studio in Kyoto. There, he deepens his research into photographic reproducibility, exploring the traditional collotype process, a further testament to his exploration of the intersections between past, present and future.