Project – City Canyons – Contextualisation

Using multiple exposures as part of the photographic process is not a new technique it was used by Sir Francis Galton as part of his eugenics photography in the 1880s fast forward to the 21st century and there are a couple of contemporary photographers that are worth considering in relation Series No. 2 ‘City Canyons’ which is the work of Idras Khan and Ian Brown’s Series ‘Walking the Land’

At initial reading Khan’s images of London have more parallels to Series No. 2 ‘City Canyons’ than Brown’s ‘Walking the Land’. Khan’s images contain similar level’s of photorealism to ‘City Canyons’ however Khan as decided to use black and White with the images recording the complete landmarks within the frame. The layered exposures are them taken from slightly different perspectives and merged together to create the final image.

Brown’s images are created from layers the images captured as he walks about the use of a greater number of layers results in a image devoid of detail resulting impressionist representation. Impressionist nature of Brown’s images makes one think about the work of painters such a Monet and this particular image reminds me of Monet’s Sunrise 1872.

As discussed earlier City Canyon’s is closer to the work of Khan but draws from the approach used by Brown to acquire his images for ‘Walking the Land’ in that the source images are taken without consideration to the settings of the camera.