Westminster Bridge - Limited Edition 1 of 50 Photograph

This image is made up of 34 individual overlapping photographs to create what’s called a photomerge, the same technique by which panoramic pictures are often made. Unlike most of the work in this collection, which often evolved from their initial ideas into something unexpected, I had visualised this image in my minds eye from the word go, so the challenge was a bit more of a technical one. Over the course of a long summer I made eight separate attempts to create this picture, coming back to it every few days or weeks. The first four attempts were to perfect the technique itself, which I hadn’t before then seriously explored, and the next four shoots involved going back at various times of day to try and get the best light possible on Big Ben in the distance and the body of the bridge in the foreground In terms of the picture’s design, I wanted to create an image with a powerful sense of depth that was also very dynamic in a two dimensional, graphic sense at the same time. To achieve this effect with one shot would have involved using a very wide angled lens, so wide in fact that it would have distorted the edges of the picture, which in this case held important detail. Plus, perhaps more importantly, I simply didn’t have a fisheye lens wide enough to do the job, hence the photomerge. A lot of time and love has gone into this image, both the shot itself and the subsequent computer work and printing. In terms of blending the different pictures into one image the computer’s automatic functions only get you about 80% of the way, the rest involved a lot of subtle nudging and bending and retouching to get it looking like one single flawless image. I hope you like it. 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:14.3 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.