Footfall : City Of Absence
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Andrew Stanney has used an extraordinary visual archival history left upon the walls of forgotten and undeveloped tube passageways to create fine art photographs that, although qualifying as a visual record, possess their own individual gravity and narrative within the hidden and the exposed. Stanney’s tenacity in creating his artworks is a narrative in itself, he had a suspicion his subject matter lay within the tunnels. Research, willing station staff who showed him the evidence, TFL denying all knowledge (then confessing) to the tunnels’ existence, the negotiation of a license to publish, a paid chaperone, (informal) weekend visits, the carrying of experimental lighting and heavy equipment with the keys to the door, Stanney has proved himself as a contemporary journeyman artist.
The exhibition also features interior images of stations devoid of human presence. Equipped with a Hasselblad and shot in medium format, Stanney realises a symmetry and depth of field similar to the visual exactitude found in the films of Stanley Kubrick.