Ian Hoskin was born in Newcastle Upon Tyne in 1955. He Graduated from Sheffield with a Fine Art degree in 1981, specialising in Photography. Ian worked Freelance for the BBC's Picture Publicity Department for many years, photographing famous faces such as Dolly Parton, Russel Brand, Bruce Forsythe and many others. He originally started photographing whilst traveling in Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and Nepal in the early to mid 70's with an emphasis on Black and White Photography, a love which has continued, resulting in various ongoing portrait projects.

More recently he has photographed a series of colour portraits of weathered and decaying images on walls in both urban and rural areas of Southern India. Of his work, Ian says, "India has a population of around 1.25 billion, so to have your image on a wall means one has achieved an elevated status. Documenting these fading and defaced faces, is for me a momento mori and a way of freezing what happens to both image and person before their almost inevitable slip back into wall and obscurity. Following their Warholesque 15 minutes of fame, is a period for the images, often years, of degrading exposure to the elements and human intervention, during which they are transmogrified, into something ghostly, surreal or abstract while others become vaguely comical and some even joyful."

Ian Hoskin's work reminds us of the highly acclaimed Italian artist Mimmo Rotella who worked with decollate in the 1950's and 60's. Rotella's work has been shown in the Centre Pompidou in Paris and at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1990, and at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 1994. Rotella is therefore a proven forerunner of the success and power of this art form. 

(Three images, Mimmo Rotella 1956-1960. Thanks to Poul Webb Blogger for confirmation of dates)