Charles Brabin

Based in London, England, I work in black and white, with a focus on urban and industrial scenes as well as landscapes and the natural world.

In my work I attempt to combine my own attraction to patterns, contrasts and textures with the unique view on the world which the camera offers: photographs can capture the dynamism of the environment which our eyes struggle to discern; they can show us our surroundings in the absence of colour, highlighting shapes and differences in light and shade; they can reveal the details of seemingly pitch black nightscapes. Through the camera we can appreciate the elements of our environment which often remain unseen, creating a window onto a new, attractive and fascinating world.

Living landscapes – Dynamic Scenes in the World of Black and White
Landscapes are often made up of more than land, water and sky; they are alive, defined by the life forms which inhabit them, including humans. In this series I have attempted to capture landscapes as not just places or ‘inert’ scenes, but as dynamic, living, changing environments. With this dynamism comes an unpredictability and complexity that results in patterns and scenes which will never be exactly the same again.

Capturing a scene at a given instant, producing a ‘frozen’ image whilst the subject keeps on changing, both creates a sense of stillness in the picture and at the same time highlights the movement which has been suspended in the photograph. In the absence of colour, the focus becomes the raw elements of the image – the shapes, the lines, the edges, the objects within. My hope is that by focusing on the living, moving, growing, transient elements of the world around us, we can better appreciate the moments we witness and better value the life forms around us, not just for their beauty but for their ecological role as a part of the landscapes which we – just like them – inhabit.

http://charlesbrabin.com/

charles@charlesbrabin.com