Laser prints and archival tape, 20 x 20 cm.
Eugenie Shinkle
Archival tape holds together laser-printed landscapes in origami-like compositions. There is no hidden trick, no magic, but instead, there is an honesty in the materials. Eugenie Shinkle understands images deeply and the ways to bend, pull, and layer them. She rejects the single image and instead, using narrative and sequencing, organizes images into larger organisms. Always working within conceptual containers, Shinkle deeply explores the power of the photograph.
In the Words of the Artist
C-type photographic prints and archival tape
10 x 20 cm.
I originally trained as a civil engineer, and I’ve always had an interest in the physical structure of both built and organic forms. All of my work involves ‘rebuilding’ experiences of space and place by recombining multiple images into new forms. When I started working this way as an undergraduate student, it was driven mostly by intuition; nowadays, I also incorporate research into the nature of the forms with which I’m working - the Morphogenesis work, for example, is informed by research into the way that climate change is altering the growth patterns of plants.
In my undergraduate course, we were taught to aim for perfection in the single image and to use narrative and sequencing as guiding principles for organising single images into larger bodies of work. I resisted that from the very beginning! Single images have never felt like ‘enough’ to me. I’ve always been fascinated by imperfect and partial images, by multi-image constructions, and by more fluid forms of organisation that encourage different ways of seeing.
C-type photographic prints and archival tape
10 x 20 cm.
The thematic concerns driving individual bodies of work can vary - with the ROM work, for instance, it’s about the way that the camera structures built space; works like The Deluge, on the other hand, explore ecological themes. Uniting all of the work is a fascination with the instability of the single image, and with the way that the simple act of recombination can totally transform what you see.
The initial act of photographing and the eventual act of ‘rebuilding’ are two quite distinct stages. The first stage of the process is really intuitive - I’m attracted to certain places because of the way that they ‘feel’, and I make multiple images of the same place, going back to them over and over again.
The ‘rebuilding’ phase is driven partly by memory, and partly by research into the nature of the forms I’m working with. I guess you could say that it’s the more rational part of the process, because it involves remaking multiple images into larger forms that share, in some way, the structural logic of the original subject matter. I shoot on film, and for a long time, one of my rules was that each construction must include every image on the roll of film, or every sheet of large-format film. That’s starting to change with some of the newer work, but - just like designing a building - there are always structural rules that need to be followed.
Laser prints and archival adhesive tape, 50 x 100 cm.
Laser prints and archival tape, 20 x 20 cm.
I’ve always been very curious about the fickle nature of photographs - the way that differences of scale and context can totally reshape what we think we are seeing. The dialogue between fairly small individual images and larger constructions has always been really important to me. When I’m building a piece, I’m constantly walking back and forth to see what it turns into when you look at it from further away. I love the idea of creating a slightly unstable perceptual experience where the tension between the visual identity of individual images and the overall construction is never quite resolved.
Because I end up looking at the same images, at different scales, over and over again, I keep finding new things in them. They start to form their own structural language - in a particular set of images, for instance, there will be ones that fit really easily into a construction and others that constantly misbehave. I don’t usually know at the outset what they will eventually become, and I’m often surprised.
I read a lot, and it’s tricky to single out particular writers whose ideas have shaped my practice. If I had to choose one, it would be Michel Foucault - my final undergraduate exhibition was an attempt to give visual form to his essay ‘The Prose of the World,’ which is the first chapter in The Order of Things. I’m not sure that it was a success, but his idea that pre-Enlightenment thinking treated the world as a vast and infinitely complex syntax incorporating organic and inorganic forms has always stuck with me.
C-type photographic prints and archival tape
10 x 20 cm.
Laser prints and archival adhesive tape, 50 x 100 cm.
About the Artist
Eugenie Shinkle is a photographer and writer based in London, UK. Her work engages a range of topics, including landscape, fashion photography, and human-technology relations. She is Editor of the online photo-book platform C4 Journal.
For Your Viewing Pleasure
What to watch, read, and experience, as curated by the Collé team.
MARTIN VENEZKY is a designer, artist, and educator specializing in book design and typography. Throughout his career, Venezky has maintained a deep and continued interest in photographic process, form generation, and abstraction.
BARBARA LEVINE is a photo collagist, collector of vernacular photography, curator, and author of several books on found photography (published by Princeton Architectural Press). Her extensive photo archive (a.k.a. Project B) is the foundation of her artwork, exhibitions, publications, and collaborations with other artists.
KEVIN CLAIBORNE is a multidisciplinary conceptual artist whose work explores how Black identity is shaped through history, memory, and mental health. Engaging with the emotional and psychological landscapes of the Black American experience, his practice probes the quiet weight of intergenerational trauma, the silences in the archive, and the ongoing negotiation of self in a world saturated with imposed narratives.
ZHI WEI HIU is an interdisciplinary artist based in NYC. Trained in analogue photography processes, they treat the practice of making and printing images as a sensuous process that places the body in correspondence with the materiality of the image.
JEONG YOUNG HO (b. 1989) is a South Korean artist whose practice interrogates the evolving boundaries of photographic representation in the digital age. Educated at the Royal College of Art in London (MA, 2018), Jeong has cultivated a body of work that challenges the ontological status of the image, often blurring the line between the photographic and the post-photographic.
Out and About
What to watch, read, and experience, as curated by the Collé team.
▼ WATCH
The Art of Rebellion: Justine Kurland’s Utopian Photography by MOMA
In this documentary, Kurland opens up about her creative journey through collage and photography. From her unconventional childhood to traveling cross-country with her son, she shares the experiences that shaped her radical vision of female freedom and resistance.
▼ WATCH
The Code by Eugene Kotlyarenko
This 2024 film is a chaotic found-footage rom-com set during the early pandemic. It follows a couple unraveling in real time as they surveil each other, blending paranoia, performance, and digital overload. The film satirizes cancel culture and the attention economy with a jagged, voyeuristic aesthetic.
▼ LISTEN
The Silver Suite by Dirty Art Club
This is a 13-track journey through ambient textures and lo-fi beats. The album blends dreamy atmospheres with intricate sampling, showcasing the artist's signature chill-out style. Fans can anticipate a 24-minute soundscape that continues Dirty Art Club’s tradition of recording immersive, instrumental hip-hop experiences.
