Photographers - A Flash Of Darkness

Leonard Misonne: Alchemist of Atmosphere

Rather infrequently, a photograph just stops my world for a moment, and the image totally absorbs me. This has happened most frequently at exhibitions, but sometimes it just takes a single photograph. Waterloo Place (1899) by Leonard Misonne (1870-1943) is...

The Understated Genius of Saul Leiter

Saul Leiter - An Unfinished World I have long enjoyed the photography of Saul Leiter and my admiration for his work was increased by visiting the "Saul Leiter: An Unfinished World" exhibition at MK Gallery, curated by Anne Morin. This...

Vivian Maier and The White Bear

It’s hard not be distracted from Vivian Maier’s work by her life. As told in the 2015 documentary Finding Vivian Maier, the extraordinary stories of her life and the discovery of her work have contributed substantially to her posthumous status as a...

Cindy Sherman – Star of the Films That Never Were

Cindy Sherman is one of the world's leading artists – for 30 years, she has starred in all her photographs – and yet the more we see of her, the less recognisable she is. She's a Hitchcock heroine, a busty Monroe, an abuse...

Cindy Sherman, New York, self portrait

Fan Ho – Smoke, Mist, Light and Shadow

Evening in Aberdeen, 1958 I first came across Fan Ho's work in a podcast from Ted Forbes' The Art of Photography. Some photographer's work gives me an immediate jolt the first time I see it. Fan Ho's photography, like that...

Brassaï’s Dark and Beautiful Realm

Avenue de l'Observatoire - © ESTATE BRASSAÏ-RMN Brassaï is one of those photographers whose work had an immediate and profound effect on me. His dreamlike nocturnal street photography and sharply observed portraits of life after dark provide a unique set...

William Klein and The Zero Degree of Street Photography

Dance in Brooklyn 1955 © William Klein I came across the work of William Klein when browsing though photography books in a book shop. It didn't take many turns of the pages for me to decide to buy the book...

Fox Talbot and Early Photography

Fox Talbot at dawn The recent exhibition Fox Talbot: Dawn of the Photograph at the Science Museum in London which ended on September 11th 2016 was described as ‘magical to behold’ by Time Out and ‘ground-breaking’ by The Times. I found it extremely...