Biography
Featured in prestigious collections such as the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Antony Cairns has developed a unique vision of the city, his main source of inspiration. Born in London in 1980, he adopts an experimental approach marked by retro-futuristic aesthetics.
In the early 2000s, as London underwent a profound urban transformation, Cairns set out to document this change. He works with a compact 35mm camera, which is discreet and well-suited to night photography. Like Eugène Atget, who documented the metamorphosis of early 20th-century Paris, he captures a contemporary metropolis bathed in artificial light and neon.
A nocturnal vagabond, the artist explores the very fabric of the city. He reverses his black-and-white negatives to transform them into positives, then prints his images using digital technologies that are now obsolete. Far from high-definition standards, his photographs emit a diffuse and unstable light, evoking the “darkness of a foggy night” described by Russian filmmaker Andrei Moskvin.
In 2015, Antony Cairns received the Hariban Prize, which enabled him to work at the Benrido studio in Kyoto. This experience marked an important step in his research into the reproducibility of the photographic image, particularly through his exploration of the traditional collotype process, illustrating his constant interest in the dialogues between past, present, and future.
His work combines silver-based techniques and darkroom processes with experimental media. The images thus take shape on gelatin silver film applied to aluminum, on the digital ink of e-ink readers, or on IBM memory cards from early computers.
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Selection of solo exhibitions
2024 PXL CTY, Sous Les Etoiles Gallery (New York USA)
2024 Paris Photo, Intervalle gallery
2023 The City and the City: Antony Cairns and Frank Horvats, Frank Horvats Studio (Paris, France)
2023 New Punch Cards, Offscreen Paris (Paris, France)
2023 PXL CTY, Akio Nagasawa Gallery (Tokyo, Japan)
2022 PXL CTY, MeP Studio space (Paris, France)
2022 CTY 5081, Encounter contemporary (Lisbon, Portugal)
2021 CTY_TYO3-TYO4, Webber Gallery, (London, England)
2021 TYO3-TYO4, Akio Nagasawa Gallery (Tokyo, Japan)
2021 CTY / Computer Punch Cards & E.Ink Screens, Approche exhibition with Intervalle Gallery (Paris, France)
2020 CTY-TYO3, Stieglitz 19, (Antwerp, Belgium)
2019 Touchstone, The Photographers' Gallery (London, England)
2019 CTY, Akio Nagasawa Gallery (Tokyo, Japan)
2018 Independent Brussels (represented by Roman Road), Bâtiment Vanderborght (Brussels, Belgium)
2018 The Tale of Adam Earl Gordons, Théâtre de Verdure (as part of the Festival Images Vevey), (Vevey, Switzerland)
2018 NADA New York (represented by Roman Road), Skylight Clarkson Sq (New York, USA)
2017 TYO2-LDN4, Roman Road, London, England Antony Cairns, Stieglitz 19 (Antwerp, Belgium)
2016 Process II, daikanyama photo fair (represented by Roman Road), (Tokyo, Japan)
2016 OSC - Osaka Station City, Roman Road (London, England)
2016 LA-LV / LDN Process, SferaExhibition (as part of KYOTOGRAPHIE), (Kyoto, Japan)
2015 E.I. / Transition, Roman Road (London, England)
2014 LDN, Roman Road (London, England)
2014 LDN, Stieglitz 19 (Antwerp, Belgium)
Selection of group exhibitions
2024 PARIS PHOTO with galerie Intervalle (Paris, France)
2023 Highlights, Encounter Contemporary (London, United Kingdom)
2023 High Season, Encounter Contemporary (Lisbon, Portugal)
2023 Photography now, Victoria & Albert Museum, Photography Center (London, England)
2023 Civilisation: The way we live today. Saatchi Gallery (London, England)
2023 CTY / Unknown Places, galerie Intervalle (Paris, France)
2022 Deconstructive Narative, Sous les Etoiles Gallery (New York, USA)
2021 What Remains, Encounter Contemporary (London, England)
2021 salon ART PARIS with galerie Intervalle (Paris, France)
2019 Expired, Sara Kay Gallery, New York, USA. Curated by Maya Benton
2018 Through the Looking Glass, Cob Gallery (London, England)
2018 Artificial Impressions, Stedelijk Museum Breda (Breda, Netherlands)
2018 My London, Copeland Gallery (as part of Peckham24), London, England. Curated by Emma Bowkett
20&8 London Nights, Museum of London (London, England)
2018 Shape of Light: 100 Years of Photography and Abstract Art, Tate Modern (London, England)
2016 A Question of Memory: Photography as Object in the Digital Age, George Eastman Museum (New York, USA)
2016 TOUCHED - Craftsmanship in Contemporary Photography, Museum Het Schip (as part of the Unseen Photo Festival), Amsterdam, Netherlands. Under the direction of Anton Corbijn
2015 Abstracts, HONORÉ at Galerie RueVisconti (Paris, France)
2015 Abstracts, Copperfield, London, England. Curated by Inès de Bordas and Alix Janta-Polczynski, Memory Lab: La photographie défie l'histoire, Mudam, (Luxembourg City, Luxembourg)
2014 AM projects, Photobastei, (Zurich, Switzerland)
Awards
2019 Hyundai Card GapadoAir Residency
2017 Images Vevey Special Jury Prize
2015 Grand Prize Winner of the Hariban Prize
2015 Paris Photo - Aperture Foundation Photo Book of the Year (shortlisted)
2014 Hariban Award Special Prize
2013 Kassel Best Photobook (shortlisted)