In Focus: Julie Laing and Indre Hilara Bylaite

In Focus: Julie Laing and Indre Hilara Bylaite
6.30pm Thursday 18th February
Livestreamed through Facebook

Since 2015, Julie Laing has been documenting low pressure sodium streetlights and their impact on our nightscapes. Their distinctive yellow-orange glow, which produces a monochrome effect, often goes unnoticed, but has been described by some as depressing, even nauseating. Julie will share some images from the project which an alternative, sometimes surprising, experience of our environment. As the lamps are gradually replaced by more sustainable alternatives, her Low Sodium project invites us to notice this every night phenomenon while we can.

Julie is a Glasgow-based photographer and writer. She undertook a Master of Research in Creative Practices at Glasgow School of Art, works as a college lecturer, and is a coordinator of Round Table, a peer-led network supported by Street Level Photoworks where photographers share work in progress. Work by Julie was included in recent group exhibitions ‘Ways of Seeing’ (Shutterhub) at Glasgow Women’s Library (2020), and Street Level Open 2019.

In her presentation, Indre Hilara Bylaite will share images from a project which commenced during the Lockdown in 2020, where she made a portrait a day which was posted on Instagram. All together there are 117 self-portraits which she describes as, "including the good days and the hard days. My story feels so insignificant looking at the bigger picture. But I know there are many individuals like me who felt invisible, a little bit forgotten. Telling my story though my self portraits made me believe that I am, that I exist".

Indre is a Lithuanian/Icelandic artist based in Glasgow whose work focuses on portraiture and documentary photography. A graduate of GSA, she is a co-coordinator of Round Table and runs the Photography Philosophy Reading sessions through Street Level’s Facebook Lockdown Group which has been running weekly since April 2020. Her book 'The Last Beekeeper' was self-published in 2019.