alex
This is Alex.
He owns The Perimeter gallery in central London. It’s a nice gallery, so nice infact that you leave your shoes at the door and they give you nice plump slippers to potter around in. It’s good they do because they have one of the nicest floors I’ve ever stepped slipper on. Its just brushed concrete, but its so nice. Like, so nice. Set across stunning floors centered around a delicate but strong metal staircase bannister at the bottom of a central London mews near King Cross. I’m pretty sure it’s the best gallery that no one know about. I was asked to shoot Alex in the gallery while an exhibit was on. Their thing is the they only show one artist at a time and that person takes over every floor of the building. Each room. Each staircase. This lets you explore each show in your own way. On this occasion it was Sarah Lucas’ “Sex Life”.
Alex is a lovely gentle person, he came across very well. But I think I might have been a bit intimated by him and unsure of how to balance everything. After all I’m photographing not only Alex, but the space and also the art in it. It’s a hard balance to strike and not something I had considered until I got there. It’s a fairly narrow and tight space for photography, you’re unable to get far back and show grandeur or scale. This shoot taught me that it's one thing to visit a space, it’s another to photograph in it. I’m somewhat happy with the images, they’re a little cold but I think they would have worked well for a magazine article.
Alex has his office on the top floor, it opens right out onto the gallery itself so people often mistake it for part of the show. Its a beautiful space with a huge glass desk, practically made for an iMac. Jonny Ive would be proud. He had two large chairs and teddy bear sat in one. This was our last shot but this is the part where I cracked it. I’d found the space he felt safe in, and with his little fury friend. These images of him in his chair and the best.
I should have started here.
