Alvin Booth

Lives and Works in USA and France.

Alvin Booth was born in Hull, an industrial city in the Northeast of England. He left school at the age of seventeen and trained to become a hairdresser. After working in Hull he later moved to Oxford where his interest in photography grew. In 1989 he gave up hairdressing and moved to New York City where he now lives.

Self taught, his nude studies are the work of both artist and artisan. Each photograph is printed, toned, and “distressed” by hand. So while the image and printing method is modern, the final result is reminiscent of the photographs of the mid to late nineteenth century. The finished print is then framed by sealing it in glass with copper and solder.

Booth’s first book of nudes, Corpus (forward by Charlotte Cotton of the Victoria and Albert Museum) was published Fall 1999 by Edition Stemmle. Corpus was awarded the Kodak Photo Book press award for 1999.

For the last twenty years, Booth has been amassing a reservoir of work that revolves, capriciously, around the human body. In his digital works, geometric patterns are superimposed on the bodies of men, women, and sometimes children; his models often posed within a kaleidoscopic mirrored enclosure. The results are highly stylized compositions of natural forms, startling and disturbingly beautiful. In Booth’s latest exhibition, “Come to Your Senses,” ( Paris, Nov 2013) Booth’s sculptural forms and sound-art were featured.

Some Work Examples:

©Alvin Booth – From “Osmosis” series, Silver Gelatin Print, hand toned, 20×40″, mounted between acrylic and copper framed, ED. 12

©Alvin Booth – From “Osmosis” series, Silver Gelatin Print, hand toned, 40×20″, mounted between acrylic and copper framed, ED. 12