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Lost Light

I lit this image by walking through the composition with a torch that was shielded from the camera’s lens. During the 8 minute exposure, light gradually accumulated on the surface but I, because I kept moving, remain invisible.

In making this piece I was aware that I was drawing with light – just as later, when areas of visible torchlight were removed in post-production, I was drawing with darkness. This methodology links directly to my process of working with traces and landscapes of absence.

This location and lighting technique will form the foundation of the image I intend to use in my final show. Central to the concept of the installation is the fact that light (from the projector) is being used to present darkness.

With reference to the camera obscura the space in which the projection will take place is to be blacked out and the light from the projector will enter from outside via an aperture cut into the wall.

I'm very please to have been part of Photofusion's SALON/15 and also for beening one of the SELECT winners with this image from my series Fin del Mundo.

Recent portrait: Professor Marzia Malcangio

I was recently commissioned by King's College to photograph Professor Marzia Malcangio. This was shot at her London office as part of KCL's Inspiring Women series.

Subterraneans

Ahead of my return to Berlin this September I wanted to post a behind the scenes/comparison photograph from Subterraneans: a series of photographs I've been working on that relate to Berlin's legacy of Second World War-era unexploded ordnance. I have been photographing trees growing on or near the city's former bombsites because their shapes suggest not only past explosions but – due to time-delay fuses – explosions potentially yet to happen. The above photograph is the result of over one hundred exposures, taken over the course of a day and layered in-camera onto single negative. The top photograph I took with my iPhone in order to geotag the location.

Spectra

Spectra - Ryoji Ikeda's installation commemorating the centenary of Britain's involvement in The First World War - photographed last night from Lambeth Bridge.

Gaza Protest

A short edit from the Gaza protest that I photographed in London last Saturday.

Portrait: Valeria Cherchi

An outtake from back in March when I photographed Valeria Cherchi for The Swap. The location was a Second World War-era acoustic mirror atop a blustery cliff near Folkestone.

Recent portrait: Ben Stonard Fine Furniture

A portrait from back in March when I had the pleasure of photographing Ben Stonard of Ben Stonard Fine Furniture at his Surrey workshop. The sun was out so this was lit with just a skylight.

Recent portrait: Frances Fitzgerald

A portrait of Frances Fitzgerald, Ireland's Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, taken during the recent State Visit by Irish President Michael D. Higgins.

Josef Chladek's virtual bookshelf: 間 Aida

I was very happy to see 間 Aida featured on Josef Chladek's virtual bookshelf this morning.

El Dabaa, Egypt

A portrait I took on Egypt's North Coast during a shoot for The Devil's Garden back in July.

Recent portrait: Tim Mitchell

Tim Mitchell photographed last week in Brixton.

Morocco, 2005

On a hill above the city of Fez.

High Atlas Mountains

Cycling through Morocco's High Atlas Mountains back in 2005.

Recent portrait

My portrait of Salah Madoul (27) taken while working on photographs for The Devil's Garden in El Dabaa, Egypt. Salah was injured not by WWII landmines or UXO but in a shooting accident as a member of Egyptian Homeland Security.

The Photocopy Club: RIOT

Photographers Marc Vallée and Julio Etchart at The Photocopy Club's RIOT exhibition last week.

Rupert Brooke (1887 – 1915)

The poet Rupert Brooke died 98 years ago today. I took this photograph back in 2009 when I visited the grave in an olive grove near Tris Boukes Bay on the Greek Island of Skyros. Brooke died of septicemia from an infected mosquito bite aboard a French hospital ship en route to the landings at Gallipoli. The site was chosen by his close friend, William Denis Browne - killed in action at Gallipoli a few weeks later - who wrote of Brooke's death:

"...I sat with Rupert. At 4 o’clock he became weaker, and at 4.46 he died, with the sun shining all round his cabin, and the cool sea-breeze blowing through the door and the shaded windows. No one could have wished for a quieter or a calmer end than in that lovely bay, shielded by the mountains and fragrant with sage and thyme."

Flanders, Belgium

A couple of landscapes taken last week on the WW1 battlefields surrounding Ypres. Top: The Caterpillar Crater near Hill 60 created when 1st Australian Tunneling Company detonated explosives beneath German trenches. Above: a ploughed field hints at how the landscape may have looked during the war.

Old film

I just got around to developing a load of black and white film and found this, a chap playing his accordion in an empty street in Soho last Summer. Thanks to Tiffany Jones of fLIP Magazine for the picture of me!