Photography Exhibition - Urban Archaeology

Original Features, 155 Tottenham Lane, Crouch End
Photography Exhibition - Urban Archaeology  image
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Event has ended
This event ended on Friday 31st of January 2014
Admission
Free
Location

Original Features, 155 Tottenham Lane, Crouch End

Nearest Tube/Rail Stations
Harringay 0.70 miles

Prolific fine art photographer to hold exhibition at North London gallery.

Ed Brandon has been creating fine-art photographic images of abandoned buildings in Britain and Europe for around 6 years, and the first exclusive exhibition of his work will appear at the Original Features gallery in Crouch End, running for four weeks from November 8th. Entry is free, and there will be around 30 of his photographic works on display to stir feelings of melancholy, surprise and awe.

Artists' Statement:

Ed Brandon has been working as a photographic artist for around 6 years and describes himself as a documentary photographer. Inspiration was struck for Urban Archaeology when he discovered photographs of Cane Hill Asylum built in 1883, “I was amazed by the idea that something that big and that fascinating could be sitting behind a road or trees without anyone knowing they were there” Brandon. However, his lens captures a little more than just the scene in front of the camera. He finds forgotten, overlooked, abandoned and lost places and simply, as he puts it, uses “the buildings and objects that are there, to tell a story about the lives of the people who used to be there”.

He moves nothing around, brings no props or models, and uses only natural light. Confining himself to these parameters lends a poignant honesty to his unique perception of “place” and the many small personal histories hidden within the beautiful buildings Britain and Europe constructed during an often more romantic, less throw-away era.
His vision is expressed through a careful choice of detail and a dedication to recording scenes as accurately as possible. His works have a haunting poignancy which addresses the British people’s professed love of heritage – a love that his photographs often suggest is subject to a highly selective memory.

The lives of the unambiguously absent former builders and occupants are resurrected through the intensive gaze directed at the buildings themselves as well as the functional objects and personal mementos they left behind, hinting at narratives sometimes gradually forgotten, and sometimes abruptly cut short. An abandoned armchair and telephone tells of a comfortable and happy life once lived there, but why was this scene of domestic bliss abandoned? A mournful cartoon figure on a wall next to a tiny chair conjures imagined sounds of a long-absent child, but was their life a happy one – this was an Edwardian mental hospital.

The images have an atmosphere of nostalgia, wistfulness, sadness and occasional humour that raises questions regarding the stories of these absent people, and the world beyond the forgotten buildings their untold stories now rest in.

Tags: Art

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