Nelson with Camera - Limited Edition 1 of 50 Photograph

ABOUT THIS IMAGE I’d noticed this picture many months before I ended up photographing it. Just walking around London, not working, just relaxing or shopping or whatever, things often pop out at the most inconvenient times. When I did finally tackle it, for technical reasons it was hard to hold the traffic camera and the statue of Nelson both in sharp focus at the same time. I thought of fixing it in the computer by combining sharp images of each but decided against it in the end as a lot of people these days seem to be skeptical of digital trickery, but also because the basic idea came across just a strongly with the traffic camera slightly out of focus in the foreground. This is one of those images that seems to throw up a lot of different associations in people. Some see it as a comment on an overbearing surveillance state, others as a kind of meditation on celebrity culture, Nelson mugging for the television cameras. Personally I see the lamppost as a big selfie stick, Nelson photographing himself in Trafalgar Square like any other tourist. ABOUT THIS COLLECTION The idea behind this ongoing collection is to depict London’s numerous icons and landmarks, but with a bit of a twist. The challenge I’ve set myself is to approach these subjects, that have literally been photographed millions of times already, and yet still create something different, or just better, than most of what’s gone before. London has so many contradictory qualities, it can be hard to pin down. The balance of old and new, man made and natural, is startling and virtually unique. One or two of the images in this series veer towards the more conventional where that has seemed appropriate, but with the majority I have tried to playfully make use of the many contrasts presented by this city and find the poetry hidden in it’s well photographed surfaces. In terms of my photographic approach most of these images are the end result of multiple re-shoots. On a practical level that’s often to get the right light or sky, but there is also a strong element of evolution. Often the picture I come home with is not at all the one I set out to get, and I’ve learned to expect and exploit happy accidents. I often create very well thought out ideas before hand but like Chinese whispers they gradually morph from one thing into another over a period of days, weeks or even months. In other words the pictures in this collection, though they may not look it, are the product of a lot of shoe leather. Related to this is the fact that I try to never crop any of my images after the fact, so that what you see in the final print (with very rare exceptions) is what I saw through the viewfinder at the time. As you can imagine this way of working involves shooting a lot of pictures, some only microscopically different to the others, in order to achieve the perfect compositional balance. It’s not an intellectual thing, it’s purely emotional. You know when you’ve got it right when you find yourself doing a little dance next to the printer. I create all my own prints and spend a lot of time getting them right, making them ‘sing’ if you like. I consider printing to be half of the overall photographic process. It’s a very demanding discipline to master but I think the printing process offers such an amazing opportunity to inject feeling and personality into an image. MATERIALS USED For those interested I use an Epson Stylus Pro 3880 printer, which uses Ultra-Chrome K3 inks, onto Epson Premium Semi-gloss paper, which ensures a very high degree of tonal and colour accuracy. All the images are printed onto A2 sheets which leaves at least a 25mm margin for handling and mounting purposes. If window mounting I suggest leaving a 5mm gap between the edge of the matte and the image so as to preserve the integrity of the whole piece.

Photography:Black & White on Paper

Artist Produced Limited Edition of:1

Size:21.4 W x 14.3 H x 0 D in

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.