Winter, Derwent Reservoir, 1990, 1990
The Hyman Collection is one of the major collections in the world of vintage prints by Paul Hill.
Paul Hill was born in Shropshire and initially established his reputation in the 1960s as an award winning photojournalist, before moving towards a more consciously fine art practice that developed alongside his eventual role as Head of the Creative Photography course at Trent Polytechnic, Nottingham and Derby College of Higher Education (1972- 78). In 1976 with his wife Angela he established The Photographer's Place, a workshop and study centre, in Derbyshre that was seminal in changing approaches to photography amongst British Photographers. From 1974-78 he created arguably his important body of work, Prenotations, several examples of which are in the Hyman Collection. This personal and psychological project often used members of his family. In Hill's words: "They consist of incongruous juxtapositions, visual metaphors and symbolic references that transcend the information that was in front of the camera at the time of exposure. They were 'ordinary' situations transformed into something 'extra-ordinary' and often surreal by precise framing and creative use of vantage point."