monochrome Gallery

Three Part Fuge With Inversion

Inside an apartment block - a converted Royal Navy victualling yard building—the interior design melds and contrasts its contemporary blockish structures with the limestone and beams of the old. Royal William Yard, Plymouth, 2008

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What's in a name?

This work is an homage to Douglas Hofstadter and his seminal work, Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, a book that helped me on my journey to understand 'life, the universe and everything'.

A photographer friend, John Miles, had invited me to see his digital darkroom set-up in Royal William Yard. On leaving, I noticed the beginnings of this arrangement as I turned right (I came into the scene 'stage right'). I backed up as far as I could, even leaning backwards over the rail a little to fill the frame with the composition I was after and made the shot. As usual, I fired off two or three (especially when there's lowish light and it's hand-held), just to make sure!

The title is chosen for the composition. The various compositional structures rotate, reflect, invert and repeat each other, much like JS Bach did with the themes in his fugues. There's also hints of Escher, with the deep perspective and hints of a jumping of levels.

I didn't need to do a great deal to this shot, just a little bit of straightening and some dodging and burning to enhance the lighting and some of the textures.