Alyson Hunter is a New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 photographer and print maker, resident in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, who, during the 1970s and 1980s, employed an unusual technique of etching

Etching

Etching is the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio in the metal...

 with a chemically modified photographic image.

Life

Alyson Hunter was born in New Zealand, where she studied at Auckland University, then moving to London to study at Chelsea College of Art and the Royal College of Art

Royal College of Art

The Royal College of Art is an art school located in London, United Kingdom. It is the world’s only wholly postgraduate university of art and design, offering the degrees of Master of Arts , Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy...

. With her husband, Hugh Stoneman, she was a director of Islington Studios and Islington Graphics Gallery. In the 1980s, she travelled and lectured on print making, with Adrian Frost, in America, Australia and New Zealand, where her daughter Amy Frost was born in 1981. She was Master Printer at the New York Printmaking Workshop, and, in 1981 and 1983, University of Davis, California

University of California

The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...

, Visiting Professor. She lives with her daughter Amy, now a gallery manager, in North London

North London

North London is the northern part of London, England. It is an imprecise description and the area it covers is defined differently for a range of purposes. Common to these definitions is that it includes districts located north of the River Thames and is used in comparison with South...

.

Work

In 1971 she started making prints with an unusual technique that combined etching and photography, whereby a printing plate is created from a photograph and the plate worked on to alter the contrast, making use of the K.P.R. (Kodak Photo Resist) chemical: this is no longer available because of its toxicity. Her print, For the Glory of the Empire, made using this process, juxtaposes two 19th century architectural features, the Albert Memorial

Albert Memorial

The Albert Memorial is situated in Kensington Gardens, London, England, directly to the north of the Royal Albert Hall. It was commissioned by Queen Victoria in memory of her beloved husband, Prince Albert who died of typhoid in 1861. The memorial was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott in the...

 and the terraced house

Terraced house

In architecture and city planning, a terrace house, terrace, row house, linked house or townhouse is a style of medium-density housing that originated in Great Britain in the late 17th century, where a row of identical or mirror-image houses share side walls...

 as contrasting features of the legacy of the British Empire

British Empire

The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...

. She made a set of four prints, using this technique, of Camden Town

Camden Town

-Economy:In recent years, entertainment-related businesses and a Holiday Inn have moved into the area. A number of retail and food chain outlets have replaced independent shops driven out by high rents and redevelopment. Restaurants have thrived, with the variety of culinary traditions found in...

, London, and its residents; one of these uses the background of Camden Lock

Camden Lock

Camden Lock, or Hampstead Road Locks is a twin manually-operated lock on the Regent's Canal in Camden Town, London Borough of Camden. The sign on each of the twin locks reads "Hampstead Road Lock 1"...

 behind a close-up of a gypsy boy. These two works are in the Museum of London

Museum of London

The Museum of London documents the history of London from the Prehistoric to the present day. The museum is located close to the Barbican Centre, as part of the striking Barbican complex of buildings created in the 1960s and 70s as an innovative approach to re-development within a bomb damaged...

. Three landscape etchings 1972–72, including ones of Kent Road and Romney Marsh

Romney Marsh

Romney Marsh is a sparsely populated wetland area in the counties of Kent and East Sussex in the south-east of England. It covers about 100 mi ² .-Quotations:*“As Egypt was the gift of the Nile, this level tract .....

, were acquired for the British Government Art Collection

Government Art Collection

The United Kingdom's Government Art Collection places works of art in major Government buildings in the UK and around the world to promote British art, culture and history....

. She no longer used this photographic technique after 1987.

In 1990, she moved away from printing into photography. Her portraits of photographers, Dan Farson and Harry Diamond, are in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery.

External links

• Official web site