Exhibition of photographs

"Urban Still Lives" by Christopher Phillips

at CYPHER HOUSE 10 -11 October and 17 -18 October 2009

Urban Still Life # 17

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Urban Still Lives

The subjects that attract me most are unremarkable urban street scenes.
These undramatic familiar views can become almost invisible as you pass by them on a daily basis. But when momentarily caught in a particular light and angle they can transcend their ordinariness. Apart from the changes of season and light the urban landscape is constantly in a state of flux owing to home improvements and repairs. Seas of scaffolding, discarded packaging and rubbish herald these changes.

There is a danger in aesthetisizing these fragments of the building process – but my work is not about social commentary nor am I interested in glamourising detritus. I prefer to invoke the presence of human activity rather than to portray these cyclical tasks directly.

 The images I take are often quite flat but retain a strong geometric design. This produces an abstract structure which is key to these pictures. I capture the image full frame and do not resort to digital manipulation to enhance the image.

I believe for photography to succeed the photographer has to be fully engaged, in real time, in observing and choosing the “decisive moment”. This moment for me reveals both the unexpected and the formal. The image should stand up on its own strength. I am against the tedium of the topological series.

Christopher Phillips 2009

All photographs are in an edition of 30. They are printed with pigmented inks on fibre based archival paper.