Extending his recent photographic work evoking celestial bodies, Luke Foley-Martin’s latest exhibition, Staring into the Sun, continues his exploration of the interplay between outer space and inner reflection. The series consists entirely of hand-made RA-4 colour prints created through experimental darkroom techniques, pushing the boundaries of traditional photographic processes.

Given it is their primary source of light, photographers almost always consider the sun, yet they seldom directly photograph it as a subject. Sun gazing is sometimes enacted as part of spiritual or religious practices, or as an alternative therapy, most often near dawn or dusk. It's impossible to look at the Sun for any significant length of time without risking permanent damage to one’s vision, making it an elusive subject both visually and conceptually. Foley-Martin's process leans into this tension. By working 'blind' in the darkroom, he embraces the unpredictable nature of chemical reactions and light, creating compositions that rely on intuition and chance. In Staring into the Sun, the darkroom becomes a metaphor for an inner, introspective space.

A selection of images from the series was exhibited in ‘Staring into the Sun’ (2023) at Skar Image Lab and Radiant Solitude at Little Rosie, both in Tāmaki Makaurau. In June 2023, a site-specific lightbox installation drawn from the series was adapted for the Luma Festival in Tāhuna Queenstown. This was followed by a site-specific motion picture installation at the 2024 Luma Festival, continuing the series’ evolution.