Amazingly Ordinary

Martin Newth's latest show at Focal Point Gallery in Southsea is another example of how the photographer can reveal something to us that is always there, but never really seen. In what the artist describes as a very ordinary bedroom, he sets his camera up facing the windows with the curtains closed. Opening the camera's shutter at a time when most people are closing their eyes, Martin records the curtains in fine detail over the course of a night, opening them in the morning, allowing the film to record the outside view for just a minute. This gives the final result of the outside being transposed onto the interior of the curtains. With the same dream like quality of a polaroid transfer, it is unclear what really occupies what time and which space. As with most curtains we see the ouside daylight cutting through the center with a blinding white streak interupting any romtantic notion and reminding us of the bland and very British room we are in. There is a painterly feel to these photographs that comes from the shutter being opened for an extended amount of time, slowly capturing everything in beautiful detail. Also the window itself makes the connection to numerous painters who used the light to fall on their subject and even Fox Talbot used a window in the first fixed negative. These photographs make something beautiful and mystical out of something that is very oridinary and plain.


My favorite from the show.