DOWN TO EARTH
As a successful graduate of Edinburgh's Napier University, I was invited to show four pieces of work as part of the 2012 BA Photographic Studies degree show.
This dramatic image formed part of a self-promotional piece and resulted in several commissions from many leading outdoor clothing companies, most notably Berghaus and Sprayway.
Commissioned by Sprayway Outdoor clothing, this image of the great Norwegian ice champion Andreas Haslestead won the Observer Outdoor Photographer of the Year.
A realisation of the quality, and creative possibilities, of digital technology.
This photograph shows the marks left behind after moving a plant pot. The image describes the effects of gravity; the circle created by the weight of the pot, the spinning motion that created the pot, and the random dispersion of particles as they hitthe ground. These simple marks could be seen as sub-atomic particles orbiting a nucleus, or at the other end of the scale a planetary system caught in space.
I enjoy the fact that you can not tell the difference between the photograph and the original subject, it is a direct facsimile, a preservation. The camera has operated in a very unobtrusive way, a simple flow of light through the system.
Reader in Photography at Napier University, Robin Gillanders commented:
"the very mundane action of moving a plant pot has been related to the complex theorem of 'Higgs Boson'. The addition of the title lifts the picture conceptually from simply a formal composition to another level altogether. It is a photograph of marks left behind after moving a plant pot, but it is about the action of gravity".
Taking a step back and looking for a common thread that links these images together, one can see, or sense, the effects of gravity; the tension in the sailing boat on the verge of capsize, the ice-climber hacking out of the crevasse, the leap of the dog, the ripples and tidal effects of the sea on the beach, and finally, the intrigue and narrative created by the simple act of lifting and moving a plant pot. The title Down to Earth refers to this sense of gravity, but also hints at a return to Napier where I studied.
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