Alphabetical
Starting with a commission from Creative Review to create the cover for their Annual and shot over the last 18 years. The project now incorporates 21 letters, comprising of 93 images, 4 films, a host of supporting material including 10x8 inch polaroids and permanent three dimensional pieces.
Each letter is different and incorporates a different visual idea. Some primarily conceived for film, some sculpture but always made as a photograph.
The project makes use of anamorphosis, otherwise known as distorted projection, helping to build the letters with a high degree of accuracy. This was used in commercial photography, in subtler forms going back over the past 50 years as a way of refining composition in still life photography. People have been using linear perspective in art dating back to the early 15th century and you can see an early example of the use of actual anamorphosis in Hans Holbein’s The Ambassadors in 1533. In photography, the earliest image using anamorphosis dates back to 1913, fairly early in photography’s history but it is also the most impressive in its scale of any photograph using anamorphosis. The Human U.S. Shield by Arthur S. Mole and John D. Thomas consists of 30,000 officers and men of Camp Custer in Michigan making up an enormous U.S. shield on the grounds of the camp.