There’s something exceptionally special about stepping into the artist’s studio.

In 2023, the exhibition, ‘From Moss Side to Marseille: The Art of Michael Brown and Eric Cantona’ launched at the National Football Museum.

Whilst paying a visit, I was enthralled to discover that artist Michael Browne was in residence throughout, creating a new piece as visitors passed by admiring his established work. A quiet figure up a step-ladder, it felt almost intrusive to watch him work (from a respectful distance – although closer observation and indeed engagement was certainly welcome). Yes intrusive to witness whilst at the same time, a sheer privilege to watch a work unfold and observe a process.

And here I was again, some two years later, and oh my…

In the same year, 2023, Benji Reid first brought this incredible piece of art to Manchester as part of the International Festival. I foolishly missed it the first time round but I’m glad that I didn’t make that mistake the second…

Find Your Eyes is, shall we say, meta. The show was the art piece, and the show was the creation of an art piece and the epilogue to the show was the art created within the art of the show itself.

Following me?! As I love to say, to truly understand any piece of artistry be it visual or audio, is to experience it yourself. Your personal and individual reaction is the final piece that makes it complete.

Find Your Eyes is a beautiful experience.

A pioneer of hip hop theatre turned award-winning photographer, Find Your Eyes is a result of Benji Reid finding a way to combine his choreographic and photographic practices.

Known for award-winning Afro-futurist images that seem to defy gravity, Benji Reid invites the audience to watch him at play as he creates live photography in this genre-bending show, Find Your Eyes. A choreo-photolist, Benji combines photography, choreography, and theatre to make striking and surreal images which speak to his experiences as a Black man in the UK today. Choreographing three performers, Benji creates live photographs in front of an audience, interlacing the action with recollection of resonant moments from his life.

There would be a brief moment between the click of the camera and the materialisation of the image on the dual screens. And the anticipation that welled up in me each time was one of excitement and curiosity.

My eyes darting between performer, photographer, and then image, back to photographer back to performer to image – it was mesmerising, from the first image to the very last.

And with limited view of the performers, the ‘subjects’ of the lens, , the detail and true message was only realised and revealed as the photograph appeared, and with often powerful results.

A sequence of two happy, carefree, we presume lovers suddenly takes on a change in temperature when we notice a shift in expression of the female. As this develops with every subsequent image, we bear witness to something altogether more dark developing. And to see this play out frame by frame carries far more power than moving footage. Such is the beauty and power of photography.

This performance is a meditation on tragedy and immense joy. It serves as a conversation with myself to unearth where I’ve been all these years – a dialogue about struggling with alcohol, grappling with the immense pain of my mother’s Stroke, and contending with the depths of mental health struggles, shame, and guilt. However, this work is also a celebration of evolution, a journey of moving forward, finding breath, discovering love, and embracing life’s beautiful imperfections. My solace resides in the immersive realm of creating art, Find your Eyes is the creative process as performance.”

(Benji Reid)

As the production plays out, incense is burned, the heralding of a new ‘scene’ and of a new act is signalled by a sounding of a bell, the frequency cutting across silence like a knife. One minute in a warehouse space in Water Street, the next my own soundbath.

There is recorded narrative by the artist for each section, as he talks you through a chapter of his life, each harrowing, each raw, each punctuated by a quote.

One such…

Somewhere in the things humans make, I want to see scars, failure, disorder, distortion.

(Yohji Yamamoto)

We’re asked to ponder what war photography means to us, at the start of the show. This piece reflects the battles endured in life. In relationships, abortion, sickness, alcoholism, illness, death…and yet somehow manages to depict torture and distress with grace, dignity and beauty (there’s that word again but I can’t help but come back to it).

And that is the wonder of photography and the still image. No matter its subject and sub text, there is power in capturing a singular moment in time, frozen and there to be examined, insolation,and felt.

The partnership between all three artists, be it Benji Reid, incredible performers Salome Pressac, Slate Hemedi and Zuzanna Kijanowska, is mesmerising to watch. We see movement in response to Reid’s guidance and direction, and words of affirmation and praise as he realises the shot he was looking for. The talent of the performers in front of the lens is spell-binding, the choreography leaving you breathless, no more so than in the use of the gravity-defying choreography on the pole.

The incredible lighting set-ups, haze, wind machine and indeed ethereal, ambient hip-hop that is the accompanying music from DJ Andrew Wong, all come together in perfect synchronicity as Benji Reid takes us on a privileged and immersive journey, which explores not only the importance of exploring and depicting life’s experiences through art, but invites us in to the artist’s world and behind the curtain, as it were, as the active creation is given equal footing in importance to the final piece itself.

Find Your Eyes from Benji Reid , presented by Factory International, is at Aviva Studios, Manchester, until 30 May.

To read more about the artist, full creative team, and to purchase tickets, visit FactoryInternational.org