Distance Fades Between Us - Dark Nudes by Tim J Phillips.
Published by The Artist's Edition. ISBN-10: 0955700604
Tweet
British photographer Tim Phillips was initially inspired to produce his first monograph, 'Distance Fades Between Us', after watching Nicole Kidman perform a striptease whilst bathed in the light from a cars headlight in the 1995 film 'To Die For.' The collection was produced over a 12 month period, in various UK locations at night, with the help of eight models and with each image being lit by a variety of artificial and natural light sources.
The book opens with a brief introduction and then we are taken straight into the 130 monochrome images, that inhabit the 128 pages of the monograph, with the majority of photographs being displayed 1 per page. Given that the images were made at night, and therefore exhibit a variety of dark tones, the book makes full use of a white border and aesthetically this allows each image to breathe on the page.
Phillip's photographs are more than mere formal studies of light and shadow. As constructs there is far too much drama inherent within each image for them to have been the result of a simple exercise. These are not soft-focused and romanticised images of women - the models often appear to wear the very dirt, oil and mud from their surroundings - taking on this detritus as camouflage. Caught in the cameras 'headlights' their gaze challenges us for a brief moment, just long enough for the camera to record their defiance and then they make their escape - scrambling through the undergrowth, negotiating a bridge or feeling their way through the constraints of a cellar and they are gone.
The images within 'Distance Fades Between Us' are well executed and remind one of a cross between Bill Brandt and Lee Friedlander, with a touch of Ralph Gibson thrown in, and the books theme is strong enough to provide enough variety to keep ones interest and draw one back for repeat viewing's.
Review by Christopher John Ball
**** Rating
*Review Star Ratings If you have a photography related book you would like reviewing, including self-published material, email details to chris@cjballphotography.co.uk and I will happily consider doing so. The review will be hosted, free of charge, on this website and posted via Twitter and Facebook. All I ask in return is that a link be placed on your own site to the review on this website and, if used in any promotional material , I am credited as Christopher John Ball.
Tweet
