Tessa Barratt
July 2011
Coldness and hostility
The simple black exterior evokes no sense of intrigue, no yearning to discover what lies within. Moreover, it is a blot on the landscape, stark and unadorned. It does not invite you in, it is not welcoming, and, in fact, it verges on blandness.
Chance meetings of camera with character
The depth of emotion conveyed in Ben Hardy’s ‘East End Boy’, in which a wailing child hangs fearfully in his mother’s arms, terrified after a bombing raid on 28 September 1940, is perfectly mirrored in the mournful embrace of John Chase’s ‘Old Compton Street, Soho, 1999’, following David Copeland’s nail bomb attack on the Admiral Duncan pub.
