DOUBLE VISION

GARETH GARDNER: DOUBLE VISION

Exhibition as part of Clerkenwell Design Week.
23-25 May 2023

TOTO Concept Gallery
140 St John Street
London EC1V 4UA

What makes a good architectural photograph? There’s no objective answer, especially in this post-truth age of Photoshop, AI images and photo-real visualisations.

GARETH GARDNER: DOUBLE VISION presented a selection of my recent photographs, celebrating 20 years of work. Each image sat somewhere on the scale between meticulously staged photography and spontaneous reportage.

The title of the show alluded to two sides of my practice, displaying a mix of highly-orchestrated images alongside more spontaneous documentary photographs. The overarching ambition was to explore the nature of reality and artifice in architectural photography. 

Suspending the double-sided exhibition boards within the gallery played on the idea further. Visitors were invited to wander through the space freely, creating their own narratives and ultimately pondering the nature of truth in photography and the factors that affect the innate ‘quality’ of an architectural photograph. 

Large-format prints were displayed alongside a specially-commissioned film featuring the input of leading industry figures including artist Adam Nathaniel Furman, FX editor Theresa Dowling and Pippa Nissen, director Nissen Richards Studio.

The exhibition was designed by Tim George Studio, with a restrained graphic identity that played with the symmetry of my name and the title of the show. The accompanying use of Japanese type alluded not only to the venue – TOTO is a leading Japanese company – but also to my love of Japan and its ongoing influence in my work.

An event on the opening night included a screening of the film, plus a Q&A session with journalist Helen Barrett.