Collection

These are some of the places, things and artists that are influencing my current project, starting from the idea of collecting and journeys. I've started by looking at the areas and structures that are ubiquitous with UK suburbia; the places in which the majority live and spend our lives. It came from looking at the surroundings of the journeys that I take everyday.

George Shaw

John Myers : Middle England
I went to see John Myer's exhibition at the Ikon in Birmingham this week. His photographs tie in directly with what I'm looking at at the moment and some of them had quite a striking presence.

The exhibition displayed his photos of 1970's Stourbridge. There were some interesting portraits but the ones I was interested in were void of humans and human interaction. These ones make us look again at the surroundings in which we live in. In an interview he says that his work is partly about "coming to terms with the place we live in" as opposed to desiring and lusting after the spectacular and picturesque.

Richard Gaplin: Collages inspired by architecture

Using photographs that are cut extremely precisely Gaplin recreates spaces.
This top piece is an earlier piece of his work, less abstracted and related more to the original space.

 The one above, 'BRACE VI (Braston)'  loses almost all resemblance to a reality, only recomposing some memorable aspects. The effect is an image of a seemingly futuristic and utopian city.

I'm more interested in the taking of photos, editing out and recomposing the space in relation to an idea of mental/emotional response to it.