Ibrahim Tanner

I primarily work in black and white or monochrome, using grain I attempt to conjure feeling from a bygone era and, in this work wanted to explore contrast around memories and this things which brought comfort. I travelled to the South Gare on the southern tip of the mouth of the River Tees, expecting to feel comfort from the sea, Fisherman's huts, the water and the sounds. What stood out to me was that I gained comfort from the steel, chemical and nuclear works which had actually been the backdrop to my early years. Not realising that these were fundamental parts of my life, I wanted to capture the juxtaposition between the comforts of home and what that meant to me, as opposed to what I thought it meant to me. I shoot using RAW and work in photo editing, either Lightroom of Capture One to create an image which evokes emotional reactions in me, and hopefully others. These are three of a series of images that reflect my emotional journey home, the three here reflect that contrast more than others in the series. I am colour blind, so I often don't work with colour grading, but rather build an image that has meaning and feeling for me. I believe the images attached explore the ideas of environment and home, safety and memory.

Untitled

The dark foreground and silhouetted chemicals works are symbols of my past, lost for many years in the recesses of my memory, always there, but embellished with every passing year and less a memory of reality, and more a memory of memory. The cloud and light are symbolic of the journey, sitting proudly above these, shining down on them, realising that there is beauty in all things, even if we can't always see it.

Print

11.7 x 16.5 inches

2022