Jin McHugh

Portraits of artists at work or in their studios, photographed by Jim McHugh, hung alongside original works of art by many of them; Experience 19: TOUCH is not to be missed. Living and working in Los Angeles over the past forty years, Jim has documented the city of angels and formed lasting friendships with many artists, following them throughout their careers. Those friendships are captured in this show; portraits of the artists, photographed by Jim using big view film cameras, hang next to original pieces from the artists’ studios. Telling a story of these artistic relationships as well as capturing the magic of the art scene in LA over the last four decades. The work of Jim McHugh represents a true expression of digital innovation meeting traditional film photography. The appeal of using film in the 21st century means that Jim McHugh gets to spend a lot of time with his subjects, capturing the experience in his own individual style. A long-time fan of Innova digital media, many of Jim’s original film transparencies and Polaroid shots have been transformed into large format digital prints and are displayed in the show on a selection of our archival papers and canvas. Large format portraits, including a 5x7 foot image of German artist Thomas Demand printed on Innova matte archival canvas, chosen by Jim as it ‘gives a visual feel more like paper.’ This media has been used as the base for a selection of images in the Experience 19: TOUCH exhibition, alongside prints on Innova FibaPrint® papers – the digital equivalent to traditional darkroom papers. One challenge faced by Jim during the production of the exhibition was how to present a series of recent photos of street [...]