About Gary Wornell

Footprints and Ink Prints

I grew up in Canada in the 1960's and was a passionate high school photographer spending most of my teenage years in a darkroom in Arnprior, Ontario. I moved to England in 1969 and finished high school there going on to study Multi-disciplinary Design at University in Stoke-on-Trent, specialising in Ceramics.

After 25 years working as a ceramic artist-craftsman in the seaside town of Aldeburgh I moved to Finland in 1995 at the time when computers were coming of age. A back injury in the 1990's had begun to limit my ability to work with clay and I began to work in the field of photography. My fascination with computers was very much towards the creative exploration of image making.

Digital photography has taught me much more about the creative aspects of photography than film ever had. The camera has become my basic tool of work - both for recording the world around me and through digital manipulation to create works of art.

New directions and explorations

Recent developments in ink jet printing technology have enabled photographers to move out of the conventional darkroom with the safelight and trays of developer to the digital darkroom where new ideas can flourish. The high quality inks and range of media available is growing rapidly and it is only for the artist to dream of what might be possible to make it happen.

In the last few months I have been exploring new materials and substrates to print on and techniques that allow more creative possibilities in the field of ink jet printing. I use prepared Steel, Aluminium, and Polycarbonate as well as metal foils and thin papers. If you are interested in learning more about these processes, check out the Workshops page for my special courses starting in the Autumn 2007 in my studio in Riihimäki, Finland.

See a review of my work in Finland's national press: click here

I began making giclée prints from photographs in 2000. My work falls mainly into three categories:

Conventional prints of people, landscapes and architecture.

Manipulated images exploring the hidden content that exists within. The original subject is charged with energy and emotion and is combined with other images to release this energy, suggesting something more real than the moment contained at the time and place the photograph was taken.

The third area explores my passion for walls. The world is full of walls that tell their own stories. They have developed character through age and the influence of the seasons, through times of violence and accident. They reveal the values and concerns of the times we live in.