First, apologies for the gap between my last blog and this one. No real excuse/reason - just developing new projects, working with images rather than words, organising an extensive back catalogue, and beginning the process of setting up potential new exhibitions. Wherever the next exhibition will be, it will be my tenth so I am hoping for a special gallery, one that will also respond to the fact that I can offer workshops, talks and pop-up portrait studios during the exhibition.
In the meantime I have enjoyed photographing sculpture and statuary in museums with the intention of expanding the project to include statues and sculpture in public places, especially pieces commissioned by local towns and councils. Having photographed Anthony Gormley's extraordinary figures emerge from the sea on Crosby Beach, and driven past The Angel of the North recently, I know how powerful (and controversial) some of our public installations can be.
I have particularly enjoyed photographing statues and busts made of marble as it has a very beguiling way of absorbing and reflecting light at one and the same time. In museums the challenge is to find a background that doesn't distract so the focus is on the impact of the piece being photographed. However, that sometimes results in taking the final shot from unusual angles which can lead to surprisingly revealing images. It has made me reflect on the contrast between taking portraits where the subject changes expression moment by moment, and the static nature of a statue. By moving around to look at a statue or bust from different perspectives it can sometime look as if the expression of the face and body changes, creating very different emotional impacts. Tricks of the light of course... but then photography is so much about the play of light on one's subject.