fine art photography

Fine Art Photographic 1,000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzles

Making Photographic Jigsaw Puzzles.

I now have a new art product on the shelves that is incredibly popular, 1,000 piece Photo Jigsaw Puzzles.

Since lockdown began, I’d lost all of the work I had booked in. A 4 x commercial film deal collapsed in the first week, I lost several commercial photoshoots, one at a laser tag event and all of the weddings for my wedding photography and filmmaking business, rescheduled, leaving me penniless, jobless and with just a creative mind left wandering.

I got creative with a personal lockdown project but also did a bit of housekeeping…

…So I spent some of my free time looking back and tidying up my archives, when my calendar supplier introduced jigsaw puzzles as a new product line. I tested the waters with a few of my archived photographs and they literally flew off the shelves and I’ve been left with almost zero stock from the first order.
This was so exciting, so I went back out with my camera, thinking differently this time and I searched for scenes that could be used as a jigsaw puzzle. I even changed the way I frame a photograph, so that particular elements were placed in specific places in the frame and there was just the right amount of sky to not make the puzzle too difficult.

This was a revelation!

There are 7 puzzles in my collection now, these are the photographs, you can use the link below to learn more and to buy jigsaw puzzles.

Making a photograph for a jigsaw puzzle isn’t straight forwards and you can’t just turn any photograph into a puzzle. There has to be the right elements, not too much sky, not too much detail and the exposure needs to be perfect. Hi res images are what’s really needed and you’d certainly struggle to produce good enough quality with a mobile phone. Not that you’d want to offer an art product made as a snapshot on your phone.

So I’ve taken great care over these photographs and have designed them to offer just the right amount of interest and challenge in different parts of the puzzle. They’re all made with a very high resolution camera so you don’t lose any detail when trying to piece together the puzzle.

Since 2012, I’ve been making photographs around my local area with all the techniques I’ve learned through my photographic education (still happening) and taken great care to produce the best quality photographic jigsaw puzzles, which is completely unique for Leicestershire.

You can click on the link below to get more information about the puzzles and to buy.

Link to the jigsaw Puzzle's / online shop.

Contact me.


Sublunary - Alien Invasion of Planet Earth

Fine Art Photography meets Visual Stories

Sublunary - Part 2

As a professional photographer, Father to the most beautiful little toddler in the world and Husband to an equally beautiful Mother; I find it difficult to get out and make personal work.

In 2017, I graduated from University with a High 2:1 in a BA Hons in Photography & Video degree at De Montfort University, where the idea for this project was born.  I began with a long period of time in the library, scouring art books and photographic archives, learning about who, what where, when, why and how specific bodies of work was made.

Surprisingly, I came across some painters and other Fine Art Photographers that worked in similar fields to my research.  One in particular that sticks out in my mind was Photographer Erasmus Schroeter and Painter Max Ernst.

Erasmus Schroeter (2005).

Max Ernst, (N.D.)

I was also heavily inspired by my lecturer (Kosovan) Lala Meredith-Vula who is a contemporary fine art photographer with international recognition.  Lala's ideas about my work and how to get the best out of me was first class and Lala's self confessed crazy mind was a perfect match for the project I had stuck in my head.  She knew just how to get me excited about my own work.

Lala Meredith-Vula

Lala Meredith-Vula

Lala Meredith-Vula (N.D.)

Lala Meredith-Vula (N.D.)

So the body of work for Sublunary began.  I created a series of landscape photographs that followed the narrative of an imaginary alien invasion of the planet Earth.  A tall order you might think?  I just needed the right level of inspiration and a camera.  At the end of creating the work for my degree, I put it all together in a short movie with a spooky sound track that I created myself.  You can watch that below.

I'm now about to embark on a much longer journey that will see me creating a whole new body of work for Sublunary Part 2.  I'll be using my experiences from the first part of the project and will be digging deeper in to my imagination.

Here's a sneaky peek at my first experiment for part 2...

Paul Hands (2018), The Mute.

This is called 'The Mute' and features a landscape photograph that has been manipulated in camera by myself.  I added the red light using the brake lights on my car and chose this location for the crazy tree that could be morphed in to any kind of other worldly creature.  The reverse side of the road sign represents having nothing to say, to be muted and to be stunned by the experience of an alien invasion.  You will see that I've also added a strange shaped metal frame on the right.  This represents an alien being and is the shape of a large humanoid or key hole.  It is hollow and appears invisible with the exception of the outer edges.

The scene is lit like a stage as if the play is being carried out and has undertones of humour, not to be taken seriously.  It's a project that I can literally play and have fun with.  I have a list of locations, that I've been building, so you can watch to see how this develops.

De Montfort University bought the first 5 prints of this project and hold them in their permanent art collection on campus.  You can also read more about this project here.

If you'd like to follow my work then you can subscribe to my emails (below) or follow my social media channels.

Art Work For Sale

Photography Art For Sale

I'm having a go at selling some of my art work.  If you're an art collector, buyer or perhaps just want to have some great wall art for your home or work, please feel free to have a look at the microsite I use with the Print Space Hub to host the sales of my art work.

Here are some examples of my work that can be printed.

There are plenty of other choices to look through and with a good mixture of colour prints as well as black and white.

If you'd like to have a closer look at my artwork for sale, then please click this button to visit my microsite.

Futuristic Art in Landscape Photography

I'm in the process of creating a 9 month long body of work for my Bachelor of Arts degree at De Montfort University and in preparation for an exhibition at Freerange, an Old Truman Brewery in London.

I've spent quite a bit of time with the paintings of the German Max Ernst (1891-1976).  This body of work is heavily influenced by some of his works, like this example below.

Max Ernst

As well as the german photographer Erasmus Schroeter (below), known for illuminating nazi war bunkers and putting such tragedy up on the stage for an audience.

I've taken a blend of what these artists have created and been playful with my camera and mind.

The intention behind my work is to almost create a new category of photography; Futuristic escapism within landscape photography and by using nothing but what is available in the environment and with zero impact upon the landscape.  

I'm creating a series of fine art sculptural photographs that herald the subjects at night against dramatic skies and using light to make the scene almost like a theatrical stage for the presentation of the subjects.

My plan for this work is to create a wooden light box from mostly reclaimed materials and to display the work backlit.

Here's a sneak peek at some of the imagery that I've been producing, please feel free to add comments on my work, good or bad.  After all, I'm in the process of making this long body of work and could use your thoughts?

You can comment here and also on my Facebook page.  Please don't pass by without leaving a comment, they really are appreciated.

Paul Hands