Lampblack Factory by Barry Lewis

Lampblack Factory

Oskar Barnack Award, prize stories

00-01-1990

Unfiltered lampblack is emitted into the air. The filters of the lampblack factory have not been repaired for 15 years, exposing the town's people to a deadly cocktail of lead, tin and sulfuric acid. The plant belches sooty smoke straight into the atmosphere, creating a blackened area visible from space.

Commissioned by: Network

Photo Credit: Barry Lewis

Barry Lewis made his first film as a chemistry teacher. He gave each kid a molecular description and a huge formula sign, then got onto the school roof and filmed them racing around reacting according to their individual properties. Film was always a magnet for Barry, but a stills camera was more accessible and he could learn alone, pursuing his own way of seeing moments or series of moments without needing a script or sound.

Two years at the Royal College immersed in all aspects of photography cemented Barry’s relationship with the camera and set him on a course for 30 years – becoming a photojournalist, travelling the world to create stories of all sorts for books and international magazines. Barry was lucky to work with great writers and editors, to witness unfolding moments in history and to keep taking pictures.

Along with seven like-minded photographers, Lewis set up Network, an agency to support them in doing the work they wanted to do. Over 25 years it developed into a leading forum for the exploration of all aspects of photography, from portraiture to landscape, corporate documentation to campaign assets.

Barry switched to digital very early and created work on early digital platforms such as CDRoms and then websites. But the vast changes brought by the arrival of the web and increasingly sophisticated cameras have transformed the possibilities of image making and Barry has grown his interest accordingly.

In his journey through these digital changes, Barry became more interested in narratives involving multiple media and he’s now making videos. But his film-making is heavily influenced by his stills sensibility and his way of seeing the world. Barry Lewis is constantly collaborating with different practitioners – sound artists, writers, musicians, editors, performers, directors – and finding new ways to use stills, sound and moving images to make stories of quality and purpose.