Instant Decay

Instant Decay, a solo exhibition of new work by Charles Bishop, consisting of a series photographic prints on archival watercolour paper. Bishop’s unique process of intervening and manipulating the development process of Polaroid photographs imposes beautiful painterly abstractions to fleeting images caught with the lens. Moments are captured, but often, like memories, time and environment cause decay and degradation. The seemingly ephemeral compositions are now archivally recorded and enlarged, whilst maintaining the preciousness of the original Polaroid.

“We capture a moment on instant film and watch as the image comes to life.

When the image is fully formed, it begins a process of natural decay.

Like the image, our memory of the moment fades with time; eventually, we only recall an altered moment.

These wrecked Polaroids are those distant memories that you can’t quite remember.

And in the end, as with all memories, the image becomes whatever you want it to be.”

— Charles Bishop, November 2024