PHOTOGRAPHY
I’ve gathered together a series of photographs shot in London in the last few months that have an aspect of surrealism and illusion and that include architectural elements as part of the composition. These are not double exposures or composites but suggest layering despite being single exposure images. To me there’s something a bit Magritte-like … Read more
Last night I was adding photographs to my Lightroom Catalogue and typed in the keywords facade, illusion and reflection. I then found myself singing a phrase from Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now – the phrase was it’s cloud illusions I recall. Apologies to Joni if I have misconstrued her text but it was an involuntary … Read more
I was in Kew Gardens on a sunny day last week and took a few pictures including this quasi-Impressionist image: I decided to look back over the last few months and see what other colourful, painterly reflections I’d photographed. I remembered a series I’d shot at Hyde Park; abstract patterns reminiscent of Op art resulting … Read more
Here are a selection of images taken during my most recent visit to New York in late December 2018 and early January 2019. The focus is on facades and architecture. The first two photographs combine decorative metalwork and reflections: The next two also feature reflections and have a more abstract geometric quality: A … Read more
The other day I went to The Barbican and walking down a side street near Moorgate I saw the sky and clouds mirrored in a glass-fronted building. Later, on examining the image I also saw a face in the centre of the image, with arched white wispy eyebrows and a round mane of hair framing … Read more
I took some pictures in Camden recently of reflected facades and shadowy figures which were actually mannequins, though I like the ambiguity of not quite knowing whether the shadows are of humans or not: I started thinking about another image I’d taken in New York, a store in the process of being decorated had mannequins in … Read more
Every so often I go through sections of my Lightroom photograph catalogues and add more detailed keyword tags; I find it a good task to do when I’m a bit tired but still want to be productive. I came across a series of photographs taken in New York two years ago which I’d forgotten about … Read more
I take a lot of pictures of building facades and over the years some of these have been because of the juxtaposition of the architecture with the personal artefacts displayed. On a recent trip to Venice my eye was drawn to what seemed a quite surreal combination of an old weather-beaten apartment and professional, ultra-modern … Read more
Uncertain States is an artist-led project showcasing lens-based art. Formed in 2009 by Fiona Yaron-Field, David George and Spencer Rowell, Uncertain States publishes a free quarterly broadsheet newspaper (see my previous journal entry Uncertain States/18 features my Frown Project), holds regular artist talks and organises and curates exhibitions. The current exhibition, Uncertain States/2014 is on at Bank Gallery … Read more
I came across these reflected facades whilst walking in Soho yesterday. The effect reminded me a bit of batik – as if the buildings had exotic fabric projected onto them: