Techno legend Dave Clarke reveals his hidden talent for photography with debut exhibition at Amsterdam’s Leica Gallery. Clarke made his name on the international music scene as a DJ and producer. After four decades of DJ’ing globally, Clarke has opened his first solo photography exhibition in Amsterdam. In The Shatter Light is a highlight of Amsterdam Dance Event’s cultural programme and features a curated selection of Clarke’s monochrome images, covering landscapes, portraiture and architecture. The exhibition reveals to the broadest audience yet a multi-talented artist with a singular photographic vision.
Rare is the talent that pioneers and sustains a career in one artistic field. Rarer still are those who translate their creative vision into an entirely new medium – let alone such a dramatic shift from sound into a visual form like photography. Yet that is the achievement of Dave Clarke, demonstrated vividly by In The Shatter Light.
‘PAULA TEMPLE’. Credit: Dave Clarke.
In the Shatter Light includes photos taken by Clarke in Iceland – a country he has visited annually for over 20 years, and which also inspired his new album. It also features portraiture that cuts deep into the character of his sitters, tapping into the essence of their psyche, while his shots of built structures reveal Clarke’s fascination with architectural design and how buildings draw from and shape their environments. Shooting in monochrome was a creative choice that reflects Clarke’s insistence on presenting his raw, personal viewpoint and his relationship to photography as a filter for a chaotic world:
“For me, black and white helps focus my visual mind,” says Clarke during the preview of the exhibition. “It goes back to a primal way of looking: how you see when you’re a newborn. There is an innocence there, and it also helps filter everything else out – because there’s far, far too much information in the world. Black and white lets you hone in and get really precise about the message you want to convey. I like that visual control.”
Although Clarke’s photography has been celebrated before, such as in several covers for Billboard Italia and other publications, this first solo exhibition marks his debut – finally shining a light on a creative force more often expressed in sound. Best known for his music career, Clarke has carved a formidable path as a DJ and producer over 40 years, during which the late radio and music legend John Peel named him “the Baron of techno”. He has always shown a multidisciplinary talent, presenting radio for 25 years and teaching at the Netherlands’ Haarlem Conservatorium.
‘ROAD TO REYKJAVIK’. Credit: Dave Clarke.
In fact, things could have gone another way. Clarke explains during the preview that he had to make a choice at 17 years old between music and photography: “The choice became to sell my father’s camera and lenses or to not eat. Photography wasn’t happening for me yet, so I chose to eat.” Yet, he did not lose his passion for photography and carried on shooting alongside his musical career. Completely self-taught, Clarke now presents the culmination of that lifetime experimenting with the medium: from shooting as a teenager to documenting his travels touring as a DJ – on his own Leica camera, no less.
Clarke explains: “I bought a Leica and took it with me everywhere, and it immediately made me view the places I went to in a different state of consciousness: I’d been here dozens of times as a DJ, but suddenly saw them in a new light. Unlike with music, photographs extend the now into a slower timescale. Sucked into the vortex of the viewfinder, you not only focus the lens but also your mind – time slows in the run-up to the click.”
While opening up new possibilities, Clarke’s shift towards capturing images still taps into the same talent and creative imagination behind his musical success. For example, his shots of Iceland’s landscapes capture forms and natural histories that also inspired his music production and his long standing radio series the Saga Series. For Clarke, making music is a cathartic process that provides a conduit for his emotion and creative energy, but photography allows him to freeze these moments of inspiration and reflection. Clarke even soundtracks his photography trips with “monochromatic moody music”, capturing images in a “symbiotic” relationship with his musical brain: “they feed each other utterly, a creative vortex that sucks me in”.
‘SOLITUDE’. Credit: Dave Clarke.
Altogether, Clarke’s channelling of images and sound offer unique ways for him to tap into poetry and process: “Feeling your place and expressing it, the best poetry can be satiated by images – and sound with words dancing in your mind. While for electronic music, process is a huge thing in post-production, in photography I stay away from labour-intensive over-cooking. So my processes for music and photography bounce off each other in a dance that ultimately gives me a more all-round experience, through these different approaches.”
Yet, Clarke’s visual practice is also heavily inspired by photography itself. He has long collected books of iconic photographers and cites inspirations including Francesca Woodman, Sarah Moon, Saul Leiter and Sanne Sannes. The current upswell in Clarke’s photographic passion can be traced back to an epiphany he had in a Woodman exhibition at the Guggenheim in New York City – cementing his need to combine photography with his touring life as a DJ and musician.
Indeed, there are echoes of Woodman’s ghostly images in Clarke’s own work. He describes her influence on his photography: “It’s that living in between two worlds – a fragrance floating in the aether, purity, a representation that flows well with some musical references I have in the Gothic world. It’s undiluted, a brave cry and a poetic vision of sandalwood and guitar feedback with reversed drums and inverted reflective reverbs.”
The exhibition at Leica Gallery is the result of an organic relationship between Clarke and Leica, which began many years ago when Leica first opened in Amsterdam, where Clarke has long been resident. Clarke welcomed Leica’s openness to letting him experiment, trying out equipment and opening up discussions about his photographic practice. So when they opened their exhibition space on Amsterdam’s Museumplein, it was a natural progression to mount an exhibition together.
The exhibition opened on 26 September, with a solo performance by Clarke’s violin player Mathilde alongside photographs of Iceland featured on his latest album – a full-circle moment connecting Clarke’s music with his photography and travels. It was attended by an appropriately hybrid crowd of music industry people, techno heads and photography lovers.
A special viewing event will take place during ADE (Amsterdam Dance Event) on 17 October and will feature an interview with photographer Bastiaan Woudt.
Dave Clark ‘In The Shatter Light’ is at Leica Gallery Amsterdam until 10th November, 2024. Open to the public every day except Monday.
https://www.leicastoreamsterdam.nl/gallery/
‘LYON’. Credit: Dave Clarke.
Image from exhibition credit Jessica Hartley.
