4 JULY 2020 - 25 OCTOBER 2020, 19 MAY - 31 OCTOBER 2021
NICK KNIGHT: ROSES FROM MY GARDEN
Photos: Waddesdon Image Library
Photographer: Sophia Cliffe
Nick Knight is regarded among the world’s most influential and visionary fashion photographers, fêted for his groundbreaking creative collaborations with the very best names of the fashion industry.
This series, 'Roses from my Garden' sees the fast paced momentum of the fashion industry fall still. Each image from the series shows an arrangement of roses cut from Knight's own garden, photographed in natural daylight using an iPhone. Set up on the kitchen table of his family home, the images are an incredibly personal and meditative practice for Knight, encapsulating a melancholic vision of beauty in decay.
Although these images might seem reminiscent of Dutch flower paintings of the 17th 18th century, the transition these images take from Knight's iPhone to fine-art prints that scale over 7 feet tall, is at the very cutting edge of technology.
The images are processed through a groundbreaking AI technology, which adds in data using a software trained with millions of sample images. The AI looks for patterns and shapes in the photograph, compares it with the images it has learnt, and then applies shape and texture based on the knowledge database. It performs around two million operations per pixel to give results with as much detail and sharpness as is possible. Knight then meticulously brushes the original, softer version in with this sharper image, to create breathtaking prints that appear part photograph, part painting.
This body of work is being exhibited at Waddesdon Manor in collaboration with Albion Barn.