Instagram story viewer> @hbirtles> Posts

Holly Birtles

@hbirtles

2.9K

followers

3014

following

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

Good to see ‘Fighting Fish’ in @guardian ‘best of Photoworks Festival in pictures’ alongs lots of great exhibitions across a the city.

Photoworks Festival themes are Un/Stable: Lands, Anxieties, Dreams’ produced by the amazing @photoworks_uk team

Come down to the PV 3-5 Sunday to catch the opening at Regency Townhouse Basement to see my Fighting Fish and Sam Kaufman’s film Pseudomorphs (2026)

Check out a full festival list on @photoworks_uk website

Thanks to

@mazmanian @danitariel @aminyosefi @jozsaunders and team x

Sam Kaufman @s_am_k_  presents a film and installation based around his work Pseudomorphs (2026) is a film about cephalopods, doubling bodies, institutional friction, hypnosis and disappearance. It is staged across three locations: a marine biology laboratory studying cephalopod cognition and skin camouflage; a beach home to giant ammonite fossils; and the mesopelagic zone of the sea.  The film takes the pseudomorph as its starting point – a decoy ink body created by cuttlefish, squid and octopuses – to think through disparate instances where the body’s boundary against the world becomes unstable and altered. It is narrated through multiple voices: interview fragments, email correspondence, and out-of-body experiences.

Holly Birtles As part of the Chennai Photo Biennial X Photoworks Darkroom Residency, Holly Birtles developed a series titled Fighting Fish. Reflecting on an ongoing body of work inspired by the Thames River London and Estuary in Kent, Essex and Suffolk, where performers and artists contemplate their choreographed roles as ‘Thames Monsters; in Chennai, India, Birtles responded to the Adyar and Cooum river, identifying parallels linked to sentimentality, dedication, care, and destruction. This exhibition of largescale darkroom prints and ai collaborations recontextualises image generator methodologies to examine speculative ecological struggles through both the material and the digital

#photographyfestival #photoworks #fish #cosmographies by @hbirtles

143

15

17 days ago

Holly Birtles is an artist from London, UK showing ‘Fighting Fish’ as a part of the exhibition, ‘Alt:Analog - Contemporary Perspectives from Darkroom Residency Artist’.

Swipe to learn more about this work. Also available for a better view on the CPB4 website (link in bio).

Dates: 16.01.25 to 15.02.25
Venue: Forum Art Gallery

This exhibition is a collaboration between CPB Foundation and Photoworks, supported by the British Council.

Spread the word about CPB and check out our January Programs schedule in the link in bio! Subscribe to our newsletter to receive biennale updates.

CPB4 is made possible with the primary support of @goetheinstitut_chennai in association with the @thehindu_madeofchennai and support from our palladium patrons @tnqdistinguishedlectures and @photosouthasia

#ChennaiPhotoBiennale #CPB4 #whyphotograph #CPB2024 #chennai #tamilnadu #CPBExhibitions #photography #LensBasedArt #PhotographyBiennale #chennaievents #indianart #art #photoart #publicart #photoexhibitions #chennaiexhibitions #visitchennai by @hbirtles

210

8

2 years ago

Text by @jul_ia.t on my project Volcano Mother
in Source Elements issue

Repost from @sourcephotographicreview
•
*NEW ISSUE* Introducing SOURCE Issue 116 ‘THE ELEMENTS’ (Autumn 2024), now available to pre-order.

Read the full contents listing & editorial at source.ie [link in bio]

@hbirtles @shanehynan @samlaughlin90 @thephotographersgallery @sunderlandmuseum @whitechapelgallery @photomuseumirl @stillsedinburgh @fotohof @ortacpress @fairlightbooks @studies.in.photography @edicionesanomalas @lecturis @skinnerboox @eriskayconnection

#photography #photographer #magazine #review #criticism #portfolios #features #columns #interviews #bookreviews #exhibitionreviews #photographynews #newissue #archive #photobooks #publishing #curator #editorial #thelelements #thinkingthroughphotography #madeinnorthernireland #nationallotterygoodcauses #thankstoyou #acnisupported #artscouncilirelandsupported #sourcephotographicreview by @hbirtles

110

4

2 years ago

Last week to see Pseudomorphs and Fighting Fish @s_am_k_ @hbirtles curated by @photoworks_uk @danitariel
Open weds-sun 12.00-4.00

Thanks to

@mazmanian @danitariel @aminyosefi @jozsaunders @dismy and all of the @photoworks_uk team including all of the excellent volunteers !

@uobphotography uobphotography crew for advice and help with printing

Amazing artist Sam Kaufman @s_am_k_
@mark_hawdon for excellent installation and good fun too!
And Blazey @_rblazey_ and @martinseeds for excellent printing skills and dark room experiments

@cpbdarkroom for early work support and inspiration - dream team

More pics to come …

As a part of the Un/Stable: Lands, Anxieties, Dreams Festival by @photoworks_uk

Sam Kaufman presents a film and installation based around his work Pseudomorphs (2026) is a film about cephalopods, doubling bodies, institutional friction, hypnosis and disappearance. It is staged across three locations: a marine biology laboratory studying cephalopod cognition and skin camouflage; a beach home to giant ammonite fossils; and the mesopelagic zone of the sea.  The film takes the pseudomorph as its starting point – a decoy ink body created by cuttlefish, squid and octopuses – to think through disparate instances where the body’s boundary against the world becomes unstable and altered. It is narrated through multiple voices: interview fragments, email correspondence, and out-of-body experiences.

Holly Birtles As part of the Chennai Photo Biennial X Photoworks Darkroom Residency, Holly Birtles developed a series titled Fighting Fish. Reflecting on an ongoing body of work inspired by the Thames River London and Estuary in Kent, Essex and Suffolk, where performers and artists contemplate their choreographed roles as ‘Thames Monsters; in Chennai, India, Birtles responded to the Adyar and Cooum river, identifying parallels linked to sentimentality, dedication, care, and destruction. This exhibition of largescale darkroom prints and ai collaborations recontextualises image generator methodologies to examine speculative ecological struggles through both the material and the digital

#photographyfestival #photoworks #fish #cosmographies by @hbirtles

165

6

5 days ago

New in the Photoworks shop: Fighting Fish, a set of three exclusive prints by Holly Birtles to celebrate Photoworks Festival 2026. Giclée Prints, in editions of 100.

More information is available at the link in bio and on the online shop, with a reduced price for Associate Patrons. by @hbirtles

118

1

9 days ago

Thank you @post_creatives @photoworks_uk for hosting an artist talk as a part of the @photoworks_uk Festival

Wonderful hosts @jozsaunders @danitariel
Thanks to the Photoworks team and Post crew @simoncroberts @nina_emett

It was lovely to talk about Volcanoes, Rivers, props and monsters

📷 @jozsaunders

#volcano #riverpollution #post #photoworks by @hbirtles

109

4

11 days ago

Dark Matters and Other Geographies is a group exhibition of photography and moving image from members of the photography research group at the University of Brighton (@uobphotography) exploring related ecological, environmental and psychological themes.

The exhibition presents work with wide ranging subjects and approaches, from fictional creatures and real animal traces, visible and invisible human bodies, to pictures from closely encountered present locations and appropriated archival images from past expeditions to remote places.

Featured artists  Åsa Johannesson, Holly Birtles, Eloise Calandre, Daniel Campbell Blight, Zoe Childerley, Rachel Gillies, Fergus Heron, Rachel Maloney, Martin Seeds, Phill Taylor

Dark Matter and Other Geographies will be exhibited at the University of Brighton as part of Photoworks Festival 2026. by @hbirtles

237

3

17 days ago

Photoworks Festival 2026

👀 WHAT DO YOU THINK THIS PHOTOGRAPH IS ABOUT?

Before you swipe, take a guess…
A river creature? A performer? Something made with AI? Or something completely different?

This is the work of Holly Birtles (@hbirtles ), a London based photographic artist whose practice brings together performance, prop making, photography, AI and analogue processes.

Her series Fighting Fish responds to the Thames and Thames Estuary in the UK, alongside the Adyar and Cooum rivers in Chennai. Through performance, costume and image making, Holly creates imagined ‘river monsters’ that bring together different photographic and creative processes.

But how did she make them? And what do you think you’re looking at? 👀

Swipe through to find out, then tell us your first guess in the comments!

📸 See Fighting Fish at Photoworks Festival 2026, where Holly will be exhibiting her work at Regency Town House.

📅 2 – 18 Oct  2026 Wed – Sun (12:00 – 16:00), or by appointment (this venue has stepped access)
📍Regency Town House taken in The Regency Town House by @hbirtles

75

0

20 days ago

October’s Artist Talk with Photographic Artist Holly Birtles runs in collaboration with the Photoworks Festival.

Holly will discuss the ideas and influences that underpin her practice, exploring themes including river pollution, volcanic eruptions, AI and digital objects, reimagined truths, concealment, and subversion through process.
She will examine how these concepts manifest across both digital and analogue outputs, with a particular focus on two bodies of work: Volcano Mother and Fighting Fish.

We look forward to seeing you there!

🎟️ Link in Bio by @hbirtles

170

6

25 days ago

Following Heron and Braine’s panel, we move into a series of four artist talks: first up is Holly Birtles (@hbirtles)

Birtles’ abstract explores her project Fighting Fish, developed through work on the Thames and later the Adyar and Cooum rivers in Chennai. The project investigates ecological destruction, myth, memory, and care by combining performance, analogue photography, and AI-generated imagery to reimagine polluted rivers as sites of layered truth and speculative storytelling.

Holly Birtles is a UK (London) based photographic artist whose interdisciplinary practice combines performance, analogue and digital photography, and AI. Her work examines ecological trauma, slow violence, myth and memory. She exhibits internationally and is Course Leader of BA (Hons) Photography at the University of Brighton.

Head to the link in bio for the full conference programme and tickets. by @hbirtles

111

0

a month ago

Part 2 of helping Holly Birtles develop her monster size darkroom prints in preparation for her upcoming exhibition ‘Fighting Fish’
Thank you Holly for trusting me with assisting yet again! ⭐️@hbirtles
•
#uobphotography #darkroomprinting #largescalephotography by @hbirtles

89

2

a month ago

Some more work in progress for ‘Archive Fever Pitch’

Archive Fever Pitch draws on Jacques Derrida’s Archive Fever and Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch, bringing together ideas of the archive, obsession, memory and football fandom – and subsequent fever and unrest. The project explores heightened emotions and uncontrolled actions on the football pitch that result in the issuing of red and yellow cards. Selected moments are reimagined through staged performative re-enactments, forming choreographed scenes of frenzy, tension and adrenaline. Participants select significant incidents from international football, the Women’s Super League and the Premier League, spanning historical and contemporary.

#ericcantona #tonypolster #jillscott #artandfootball by @hbirtles

48

1

a month ago