Q&A
'This is Invisible' is an ongoing project by Leeds based photographer David Power. He seeks to examine neglected urban landscapes, capturing an awkward beauty in these spaces that are often ignored.
What ideas were you trying to explore through these landscapes?
I was trying to explore the idea that we’re always exposed to these types of urban landscapes or environments everyday of our lives. Through continuous repetition we become immune to their physical representation. We become fixated on the thoughts within our own lives whilst surrounded by these spaces. In essence I was attempting to explore the metaphors these spaces/ environments conjure up. Not necessarily from a single time or place but from a collected experience perhaps collated from many years of thoughts. In essence this removes the images from a single time or place and inserts them into a conscience.
The spaces seem to be neglected and devoid of human interaction, but do you see them as being in any way reflective of human experience?
Totally. In a physical sense they are examples of municipal neglect, they're cold damp places that people would rather ignore than focus upon yet there’s something that draws us to look on such a space. I think its because these spaces become metaphors for events that have happened in our lives, people we’ve neglected, issues we’ve ignored and a past time now lost.
Do you see beauty in these discarded spaces?
Yes, society rejects these places as neglected wastelands, which is essentially what they are. Yet to me they offer not just hope in the re-birth of nature in that environment but an experience that is not just collected from one space but from many and it’s the idea that this experience is built up over time. That’s where I feel the real beauty of these spaces lies.
What and who influences you photographically?
As everyone close to me knows, Jeff Wall is my biggest influence but other practitioners that influence me are Nigel Shafran, Andreas Gursky, Sophy Rickett, Candida Hofer and Gregory Crewdson.
What inspired you to start taking photographs?
My Dad always had an SLR on him when we went on family holidays and I suppose I got involved through him but I didn't take it seriously until A levels.
Where do you hope that your photographic career will take you?
Hopefully my career will develop as a freelance photographer, giving me some special experiences along the way. I’d love to be able to have the freedom to travel the world taking pictures.
And finally: Fry up or continental breakfast?
A fry up would be bloody fantastic!