Parachute

Parachute by Reuben Bastienne-Lewis is the first solo exhibition by the London-based artist. The show coincides with the launch of a photobook under the same title. 

The work featured in Parachute is a diaristic photographic record, capturing intimate portraits of people, places and events around him, forming a visual autobiography enlivened by friendship, family, community and love. 

Through the documentation of his friends and peers, some of them being part of the music and arts scenes in South London, he has encapsulated and recorded youth culture where he grew up, an ongoing process that he began in his early teenage years. Compiled into a record of a collective experience and memory, as a group of familiars embarking on the journey from adolescence into adulthood. 

Experiencing death at a young age triggered a compulsion to record his memories of the loved ones around him and immortalise them through taking photos. 

The title of the show is a metaphor about growing up, having trust in your process and falling into the unknown future, with the people around you, making sense of your surroundings and guiding each other along the way.