Ryan Hopkinson and Andrew Stellitano’s Strokes celebrate the start of artistic endeavour

“I think both our interests in photography and art direction begin with wanting to push the craft and see what is possible ‘in-camera’,” says Ryan Hopkinson of his frequent collaborations with Andrew Stellitano. “This specific project happened out of an idea that hadn’t previously been discussed but was, strangely, percolating in both our heads.”

Their current project, Strokes, is a series of five images that seek to define a single paint stroke as a physical structure. “The project initially started with the discussion of painting and how/why specific works can be defined by movement, style or history,” says Ryan. “Our conversation progressed to the point where we thought about that first paint stroke and if you could define a piece of work from it.”

The strokes appear suspended in mid air, and it is difficult to discern the scale or the purpose of the movement of each. “Each stroke is completely unique and hand made, we tested a varying range of materials to find the most flexible and durable as we wanted to flex and skew each stroke at will,” says Ryan. “I think the hardest part was getting the texture looking correct. We needed to delicately apply each look to create a diverse range to sculpt and then shoot.”

The pair hope to continue to develop the series and make more complex sculptures and images. “It’s always hard to decide when to finish a project like this as it can be adapted in many different ways,” says Ryan. “The more you keep pushing the possibilities the more you want to shoot.”

You can read an interview with Ryan from Printed Pages here.