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  When snapshots come back from the laboratory they sometimes have small stickers telling you your picture is out of focus, or you moved the camera. Photography is supposed to be about still images and sharp focus, but it’s easy to forget that it is really just about painting with light on chemicals.
   
 
   
 
5 secs (Connex), 2001
R-type print (edition of 9) 24" x 14.5"
   
 
   
 
7 secs (Connex), 2001
R-type print (edition of 9) 24" x 14.5"
   
  Shane Waltener does exactly this. His work continues a strong tradition of experiment with photographic technique to create images that are both abstract and documentary. Waltener’s recent images document the speed, motion and light of a train journey. Long exposures record the passing of country and city as vivid and evocative colour abstractions.
   
 
   
 
6 secs (Network South East), 2001
R-type print (edition of 9) 24" x 14.5”
   
 
   
 
4 secs (Network South East), 2001
R-type print (edition of 9) 24" x 14.5"
   
  The ‘Wiltshire’ pictures record the distance his camera has travelled, lyrically fusing the watery light of the English sky with the deep greens of its countryside.
   
 
   
 
120m (Wiltshire) #3, 2001
R-type print (edition of 9) 30" x 18"
   
 
   
 
120m (Wiltshire) #2, 2001
R-type print (edition of 9) 30" x 18"
   
 
   
 
120m (Wiltshire) #1, 2001
R-type print (edition of 9) 30" x 18"
   
 
   
 
120m (Wiltshire) #4, 2001
R-type print (edition of 9) 30" x 18"
   
  By contrast, his city pictures are vibrant celebrations of artificial light.
You may not be able to recognise the towns of their titles, but the atmosphere of the big city, with its neon, halogen and sodium lights, is vividly present. Waltener has perfected the art of stripping away the detail of our everyday experience to reveal the underlying character of light and scene.
   
 
   
 
30 Secs (Birmingham), 2001
R-type print (edtion of 9) 24" x 14.5"
   
 
   
 
19 Secs (Brighton), 2001
R-type print (edtion of 9) 24" x 14.5"
   
  If the camera never lies, then Waltener is an artist who has found a different way of telling the truth. If Waltener sent his pictures to the lab, he’d probably get a lot of stickers on the prints. Luckily for us, it’s what makes his art all the more interesting.
JJ Charlesworth
   
 
   
 
16 secs (Birmingham), 2001
R-type print (edtion of 9) 24" x 14.5"
   
 
   
 
17 Secs (Birmingham), 2001
R-type print (edtion of 9) 24" x 14.5"
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