William Josephs Radford

William Josephs Radford is a conceptual photographer who has exhibited in the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Italy, Germany, and Thailand. Recent exhibitions include Art-Icon in Arles and Paris, The Royal Birmingham Society of Artists Gallery, Glasgow Gallery of Photography, The Holy Art Gallery in Berlin, UxvalGochez in Barcelona, Florence Contemporary Gallery, and Loosen Art in Rome.

The photography of William Josephs Radford is often based on careful light design, no post-production editing, carefully staged performative sets, and deep conceptual intent. Particularly, in series such as White Knight, Cherry Blossom, and Semi-Detached, the artist conveys themes such as the lingering passing of death, anticipation, labor, and apparitional connotations. His various techniques are experimental in nature, such as using the light from pornographic videos on his phone to illuminate flowers in the Deflowered series or covering his lens with vaseline and attaching red gel to his flash in the White Knight series. Such intent is meant to convey concepts such as mourning the death of his father through ghostly blood-red tones on the photographs to reflecting on William’s toiling work in hospitality. 

Fleeting moments of anticipation become apparent in such works within the Cherry Blossom series. Here, dark theatrical blue lighting as well as intense, opaque, and ominous shadows become illuminated by flowers ‘smoking’ cigarettes, as if they were figurative. The immense symbolism in the portfolio becomes further noted in performative still life photographs of figures and hands apparitionally attempting to capture everyday objects such as a banana, captured through multiple exposures and conceptually-clever light design reflecting neon tones. How William Josephs Radford shapes the light design in his photography is distinguished in the analogue processes, creating a thoroughly natural effect which has supernatural and paranormal attributes. This becomes notable in the contemporary age of photography often shaped by digitization and over-Photoshopped paste. These works are just as theatrical as they are photographic in their conceptual tendencies to convey personal reflections. Through subtle motion in multiple exposures, the photographs almost have the appearance of video stills, as if the viewer were fast-forwarding or slowing down a film. With these intentions, the artist portrays the passage of time and fleeting-grasping moments, longing for a sense of purpose amidst experiences of loss, stress, and deprivation. Using colored and strategic analogue light effects as a sophisticated tool for posturing the subject towards poetic and philosophical meaning, William Josephs Radford adds depth to interpreting the human experience in regard to the relationships we have with our reflective purpose. 

White Knight - 27th of October, 2024 (pictured above) is a striking photograph which conveys William’s aptitude for portraying the concepts of anticipation and reflection. The divide of bright neon colors, from magenta to hot pink illuminating the rapid motion of ashing a cigarette into a broken egg reflects specifically on the morbidity of grief, with a sense of nihilism and horror. The egg could symbolize birth while the ashes and cigarette representing death, a passing letter to his deceased father on the reflective sorrow of losing a connection to our identity and past.

With a talent for light design, theatrical portrayals, and conceptual symbolism, William Josephs Radford represents some of the very best contemporary photography has to offer in regard to image-making with a purpose. His intent-driven narratives are accentuated by his conceptual musings on the fragility of life and the turmoil of reflective experiences. Like an investigator, he explores the relationships in the meaning of irony through strategic still lifes, carefully arranged set placement, imaginative illumination, and performative actions which accentuates melancholy ruminations on how the impact of experiences navigate his sense of self-identity.

https://josephsradford.com