Woman and horse

A battle of wills caught between a woman and a horse. With unruly behaviour and pricked ears, the lens renders him more mule than thoroughbred. The composition allows the eye to be led into the image by the pathway but tension and drama are provided by the tussle, the tightened rein cutting through the image, the lowering sky, and the woman’s expression. The interest in this shot comes from the story of the relationship between the woman and her horse, and the character the lens gives to them both.

Words by Vilja Wheatcroft

Awarded an Honourable Mention in International Photography Awards competition, Oneshot: Movement

Apocalyptic in nature with a lowering sky and a landscape full of threat, this image features sheep feasting on abandoned cabbages.  There’s plenty to intrigue the observer, mainly through the composition and shadow-play generating ambiguity an… — Apocalyptic in nature with a lowering sky and a landscape full of threat, this image features sheep feasting on abandoned cabbages. There’s plenty to intrigue the observer, mainly through the composition and shadow-play generating ambiguity and complexity There’s mystery too – the incongruous obelisk structure in the dead-centre of the frame, the abstract interplay between leaves and sky on the bush in the foreground, and the cabbage remains with echoes of grainy genocidal war images. All good photographs involve paradox at some level, and here it’s the incongruity of the grazing sheep placed in an environment that is both familiar and absurd.
**Words by Vilja Wheatcroft**

Architectural Aesthetics 13/3/2021Architecture is often an intrinsic element in street photography.  The buildings at once enfold, dominate, exclude or promote the figures in the picture.  Tone, shape, shade, and light cast them as actors,… — **Architectural Aesthetics**
**13/3/2021**
Architecture is often an intrinsic element in street photography. The buildings at once enfold, dominate, exclude or promote the figures in the picture. Tone, shape, shade, and light cast them as actors, offering environments of threat, safety, warmth, or isolation.
The soaring rectangles of this image provide both harmony and juxtaposition The figures in the picture seem in step not just with each other but with the careful symmetry of their environment. They appear to belong within it and are apparently at ease in their space. Yet they are also engulfed by the size of the building, which fills the frame, and the sheer weight of their surroundings threaten to annihilate them. The architecture here seems incarcerating with its limits set well outside the frame. It is their movement through the image as a snapshot that renders the picture so ‘watchable’. Not only do they provide movement to an otherwise immutable and sterile space, but they also give the image an additional ‘life’. The ‘watcher’ can fill in what came before and what is to come in the photograph, and there is enough here in our imaginings outside the frame, to prompt questions and generate intrigue.
**Words by Vilja Wheatcroft**

Istanbul Men

Peter Corbett February 15, 2020

The relationship between the men on the steps is intriguing. Could they be waiting for something unknowable and outside the frame, or do they simply enjoy their mutual lack of industry? While the line of six is compositionally pleasing, a hint of disapproval from the seventh, a woman in a rush, provides tension and drama. Patterned cobbles, watermarks, graffiti and glue-marks give depth and life to the street the men inhabit. The shop door and the speed caught mid-air of the woman’s step, suggest an area of commerce nicely at odds with the men’s leisurely demeanor.

Words by Vilja Wheatcroft