Only The Sunny Hours
Contemporary Photography with a Brownie 127

Curated by Cally Trench

Cally Trench

Only The Sunny Hours


Brownie 127 photography by Cally Trench

Cally Trench, Family Group 1 (2015)
Black and white 127 film,
cropped and coloured

Brownie 127 photography by Cally Trench

Cally Trench, My Family and a Large Vase (2015)
Black and white 127 film

Brownie 127 photography by Cally Trench

Brownie 127 photography by Cally Trench
Brownie 127 photography by Cally Trench

Brownie 127 photography by Cally Trench

Cally Trench, Hepzibah dressed up
as a magician
(2015)
Black and white 127 film

Brownie 127 photography by Cally Trench

Cally Trench
Hepzibah dressed up
as a cow
(2015)
Black and white 127 film

Brownie 127 photography by Cally Trench

Jessie Courtney
Caroline dressed up
as a nurse
(1962)
Black and white 127 film

Cally Trench recalls the process by which photographs were taken on a Brownie 127 when she was a child, when every shot was precious (there being only eight on a film). The photographer and sitter collaborated on a carefully planned and enacted shared activity in which they each watched the other. Her grandmother, Jessie Courtney, also liked to photograph Cally in fancy dress, unknowingly continuing a long tradition in British photography of recording people in costume (for example the amateur theatricals in Vanessa Bell's family album and many photographers' records of British folk customs). Cally Trench has chosen to photograph her family in the garden in the same way: family groups and her 18-year-old daughter in fancy dress.

Taking photographs and being photographed with a Brownie 127 camera, with the need to pause and pose, means that the occasion is a memorable single moment. We still conventionally say 'cheese' as we pose, but, as we increasingly take unposed snaps with our digital cameras, the need for a single perfect grin is removed. For a short film and an artist's book, Cally invited people to try out other words, with different vowel sounds, as she photographed them with a Brownie 127 camera.

Brownie 127 photography by Cally Trench

Cally Trench, John and Sophie say BOY (2016)
Black and white 127 film

Words you could say instead of CHEESE (2016)
Silent film [1 minute 30 seconds]
Roses Hat (2017)
[20 seconds] Music by Josh Hagley

Cally Trench is an artist and curator whose work focuses on mapping and different viewpoints. Her work includes board games, photographs, timelapse films, and books, as well as paintings and drawings in which she maps places or people. She has an MA in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins. Recent exhibitions include The Art of Dying (with Alex Dewart and Sally Scagell) at Wycombe Museum (2017-18), Cally Trench / Philip Lee: Artists' Books, Ravensbourne, London (2017-18), and Faces by Cally Trench, Buckinghamshire County Museum, Aylesbury (2017).

Previous curatorial projects include At Play, a series of four annual exhibitions (2009-2012) which she originated and co-curated with Outi Remes, centred on work that is interactive, playful or participatory, and Do you remember it - or weren't you there?, (co-curated with Philip Lee) at London Gallery West in 2013, which explored the idea of ekphrasis as an alternative to documentation.

Cally Trench's homepage