Trouble Spent.  

These photographs are something I’ve been taking for a while and have developed into an ongoing project. 

They are all images of empty high street shops in Britain from 2020 to the present. This is an ongoing project. 

I hold my phone to the glass and take, usually 1 shot. The only considerations are the photograph being at eye-level, small spaces captured vertical, bigger spaces horizontal. I’m taking them from the outside, which seems relevant to the project. 

What was once a project documenting what is happening to the high street post on-line shopping has somehow become a metaphor for how I think about myself and where I am today. 

I feel as though I’m on the outside of many things but that’s not necessarily a complaint. 

Is it that what is on offer isn’t inviting enough to move me from where I am now? 

Does the dismissal of what is on offer suggest contentment? 

The title for this collection comes from The Vanities of Life by John Clare.

On purely aesthetic level I was surprised by how beautiful I find this collection of photographs, very much reminding me of Abstract Expressionism of the more minimalist kind or a kind of New Topographics of interiors…  

I have them printed onto beautiful, warm  Hahnemühle photorag archival paper.

The image measures 297×420mm.

I hand sign and number each of the 5 editions.