Loss is the heart of my work; specifically the transience of childhood and how memories of that short period shape the rest of our lives. When my son was born, I felt driven to document and preserve his life in photographs but  gradually realised he was more a mirror than a subject and I was actually restaging episodes and conjuring feelings from my own childhood rather than immortalising him as I'd intended. And maybe all photography works with way. Perhaps we are sutured into every snapshot we take and every picture is a self-portrait in disguise and even within the ‘happiest’ moments lurks a subtext of void and artifice.

My inspiration is cinema, to capture what Werner Herzog describes as 'the ecstatic truth' in everyday events. The SLR camera seems easier and more immediate than a 16 mm so I tell my story in stills rather than movies. The fizzing speed and enduring calamity of childhood; the truth without the sentimentality is what fascinates me. Through photography, occasionally layered with text, drawings and braille, I'm trying to say something about the perilous, inscrutable moonscape of those formative and often poisonous years; Not only from my own memory but also as an ageing and curious parent and bystander.

The photographs themselves incorporate a unique non-digital process which combines traditional film photography with cinematography, the intention being to give these 'still' pictures a vaguely narrative quality that I hope speaks about love, loss and memory. In Portuguese, the word is 'saudade'-- a love steeped in sadness, 'to feel what no longer exists'. By definition, that is what photography does--to stop time, fend off oblivion, allow us to feel what no longer exists-- to remind us of what we have lost or have never had.

                                                                Biography - CV

Born in India and raised in America, Robin Cracknell moved to London in 1987 after a season in Milan where he had been shooting fashion photography. Once in London, increasingly disillusioned and frustrated with the conventions of fashion work, he moved more toward the vernacular and this new portfolio of work led to a decade of commissions from publishers and art directors for posters, magazine covers and over 300 book jackets. His technique of combining cinematography with traditional still photography and various mixed media came about from spending many of those years killing time in the ICA projection booth, watching obscure movies and gathering up the random cuttings of discarded film which later became the new 'emulsion' for his work.

After unexpectedly becoming a single father in 1997, Robin gave up commercial work for eight years to concentrate solely on raising his son. In September 2006, a series of photographs documenting this period  was selected for the top 10 of 12,000 artists on the Saatchi website for a show curated by readers of The Guardian as well as noted gallery owners, critics and artists. Cracknell's work was personally nominated by sculptor Marc Quinn. Shortly thereafter, these photographs and notebooks from that period became his first solo exhibition entitled 'The Camera Suture' at The Whitecross Gallery in London.

Robin Cracknell's work is in various private collections internationally as well as The National Portrait Gallery in London and the Fundacion Privada Sorigue, a museum of contemporary art in Lleida, Spain.

                                                                Exhibitions

2013. Art + Healing. Street Gallery, UCL Hospital, London, UK

2013. ‘Useless, useless’.  California Building, Minneapolis, MN USA

2012. Modern Love. Curated by DayFour Magazine. Theprintspace Gallery. London.

2010. Capture The Fade. Curated by Bill Henson and Ampersand Magazine. Sydney, Australia.

2009. Michael Hoppen Contemporary, London. Starting With a Photograph.

2008. Chain Reaction: BFAMI Auction, Phillips de Pury, London.

2008. Art Au Salon, The Whitecross Gallery, London.

2007. The Whitecross Gallery, London : Solo exhibition, 'The Camera Suture' .

2007. Zoo Art Fair. Two photographs selected and sold at Saatchi stand.

2006. Guardian Press Room, London.  Selected for premier exhibit with Saatchi Your Gallery and Guardian Newspaper. Nominated by celebrated British sculptor, Marc Quinn, and voted in by a  panel of art critics and gallery owners as well as readers of the Guardian from a field of over 12,000 artists.

                                                  Publications. Commissions. Awards.

2012.  Eyemazing Magazine. Fall Issue.

2012. March. DayFour Magazine. Modern Love Issue.

2011. June. Ampersand Magazine. The Fade. Autumn 2011 issue.

2011. February. Selected by Ralph Lauren for Polo ‘Art Stars’ commission.

2009. 2009.March. Critics Top 10 as chosen by Kerstin Niemann, curator Van Abbemuseum, Holland
      

2008. AXISWEB: Selected as 'Curator's Choice', November

2007. 2007.The Guardian Magazine.  27 January.  ‘I Was Tormented ...’
      

2007. 2007.July. Critics Top 10 Photographers as chosen by Aaron Schumann, editor SeeSaw Magazine
      

2006. 2006.September. The Guardian G2 Arts. ‘Acid Summer’
      

2006. 2006.October. The Guardian G2 Arts. ‘Custody’
      

2000. 2000.Fax You: The Art of the Fax: Booth-Clibborn Editions. ‘Stutter’
      

1997. 1997.Shakespeare's Globe Theatre: Artwork exclusively commissioned for the poster and publicity material for relaunch of London's historic Shakespeare's Globe Theatre
      

1997. 1997.FX Magazine : Cover artwork on 'Damage' issue
      

1995. Design Week distinction. Cracknell's poster for English National Opera

1995. Blueprint Magazine features Cracknell's image for relaunch cover issue

1995. Design International: highlights Cracknell's series of cd covers for BMG Classics

1994. Photography commissioned for ‘Complete Lyrics by Bernie Taupin and Elton John’. Pavillion Books 

1994. Design Week features Cracknell's work in article on Contemporary Photo Illustration

1992. Creative Review: article on Cracknell's 'brutal photography' for Carr-Gomm agency

1988 to present: 300 International Book Covers: Commissioned by every major English publisher and many American and European publishers including titles for Booker Prize nominees Hilary Mantel, Tim Parks, Anne Tyler, Amos Oz, JM Coetzee, Ian McEwan, Michael Moorcock, AL Kennedy, etc

                                             

                                                      Press and Interviews

December 2009. Shuttercrack. To Feel What No Longer Exists

November 2009. Eyemazing Magazine. Artist’s Issue 04-2009

September 2009. The Telegraph Arts and Culture TV, 'The Photographic Object'

September 2009. London Evening Standard,  five star review of Hoppen exhibit

August 2009. ROJO Magazine. Brazil

June 2009. ArtInvestor Magazine, Germany. Feature with photograph, ‘No’

June 2009. Dar Magazine. Greece. Feature with photographs and interview

January 2009. Piana Magazine, Poland. Feature with photographs and interview

September 2008. Ex-Me Magazine, Japan. Feature with series of photographs

2007/2008 ArtVolume, American On-line magazine features two extended interviews and publication of work

July 2007. Cult Frame, Italian On-line Magazine. Review of 'Camera Suture' exhibit

June 2007. Nylon Magazine, ‘Custody’ and ‘Acid Summer’

June 2007. Permalink, Italian On-line Magazine. Interview and feature

February, 2007. O Globo Newspaper, Brazil. Saatchi article including an interview with Robin Cracknell and featuring the image, 'Memory'

February 2007. Flying Dunces, Italian On-line art Magazine publishes interview with Robin Cracknell featuring various images