Photozines by Café Royal Books (in four volumes), and The Velvet Cell (in two volumes), of my photographs of San Diego formed the basis to this exhibition. The exhibition included all published photographs and many yet to be published. A photobook titled Alien Resident: Photographing San Diego, 1986 to 1987, which included essays and previously unpublished works, was produced to complement the exhibition. 

The title for the exhibition refers to my legal status when I lived in California – I was designated a ‘resident alien’. The title also points to my situation, which was that I was resident in an alien or unknown environment. During my one-year residency in San Diego, I shot many of rolls of film; these have become an archive of negatives that I am continuing to explore. This work was influenced by the New Topographics photographers, as well as the artist books created by Ed Ruscha. 

Two articles by Mike Pinnington, the editor of the online Liverpool-based magazine The Double Negative, discussed the San Diego photographs: the first in relation to New Topographics (Truth and Memory), the second in relation to film (Over my Shoulder). [Both articles can be found in the Reviews section of this website]. In addition, I was interviewed about the Alien Resident project by Brian Carroll for Offline Journal (photography magazine), which exists as an online audio interview.

Following on from this exhibition, a small selection of archival quality prints were shown by the SixBySix photography collective at Ropes and Twines in Liverpool. 

Alien Resident.
November 2020–September 2021.
CASC (Contemporary Art Space Chester), Chester.

Installation shots © Stephanie Wynne