Archives - Bailey McDermott in FIGURES Photography Magazine

PREPARING GAME

Fine papers, fragile halftones and subtle impressions that prompt the viewer to look more closely.

Artist : Bailey McDermott

Website / Instagram

CROOKEDSMILE(S)

PROMISES WITH A NEW APPROACH

PRICE OF EVERYTHING

TWO MEN SITTING ON A BENCH

In his practice, Bailey McDermott, based in Melbourne/Australia, works primarily in printmaking and photography to grasp and lean into this feeling of delicacy where image and material can carry equal weight both physically and conceptually.

Rather than presenting a fixed narrative, their works remain open-ended, encouraging audiences to slowly engage and uncover their own perceptions and connections.

Whether intimate in scale or more expansive, the works insist on closeness and delicacy. They remind us that images are not only seen but held — fragile yet enduring, shaped as much by their material presence as by what they may depict.

CROOKEDSMILE

A WORM WILL TURN

Nicolas Blanchadell : Can you tell us more about your creative journey? How did you find your own visual identity?

Bailey McDermott : Through my studies in visual arts, I was always entirely drawn to alternative photography and their processes (with a lot of insight and guidance from my beautiful teacher and friend, Jessica Schwientek). It was always more about the processes over the outcomes for me though.

Since completing my studies, it became more about the textures, delicacy and stability of the surfaces and inconsistencies – and that’s exactly what I’ve found and love about the current woodblock processes that I do.

NB : What is the process of selection of your subjects? Is it archive or new work?

BMD : My process for selecting subjects is quite sporadic. Sometimes it’s from the archives of my camera roll, and sometimes it’s from a photoshoot for a specific piece or concept – it all depends on the direction I’m aiming for. Recently I’ve been doing quite a lot of hand-printed video works too, which allows the frames to be separated and used for their own still works (as a photograph or print).

NB : What is your relationship to photography, within your artistic practice and personal?

BMD :The truth is, I’m not entirely sure what my relationship with this process is. I’m still trying to figure that out, but that may take a lifetime.

Whether my work is a photograph or a print, or something else entirely – photography will always be within my practice from the standpoint of documentation – and maybe that’s enough.

NB : What drives you to create a new piece?

BMD :The inconsistencies of each individual print have definitely become a main driving factor for me. These inconsistencies may be the deckled edges of the paper, uneven ink transfers, the misalignment of the matrix on the registration sheet or even a smudge of ink straight through the subject of the image. It’s all beautiful and it gives me something to look forward to.