Went to meet  friends at Stratford-upon-Avon today. We decided to have a look around the recently renovated Royal Shakespeare Theatre and came across a fabulous  exhibition. 
Tom Hunter's A Midsummer Nights  Dream was inspired by the Shakespeare play of the same name.  The photographs are visually very striking, dramatic , and full of minute detail cleverly referencing the play's themes. Translated into a modern setting, using  a troupe put together from his local neighbourhood, each subject plays a role in the visual masquerade , motivated by the work of Romantic painter Henry Fuseli (see below) .

His website is well worth a look at , the images draw inspiration from Johannes Vermeer and are carefully considered in their use of light, hues and composition. His subjects,  inhabitants of Hackney, London, show an inner poise and demonstrate his  affinity with the people and area. Using an established approach he creates  thoroughly modern and individual images. Describing how his personal style evolved Tom comments "One of the attractions of  photography for me is this notion of realism, the belief that the camera never  lies. Vermeer gave us a window into a real world but also a world imagined  through his art. It is exactly this that attracts me to photography. The images  are real, yet created by the person manipulating the camera." Tom Hunter.

http://www.tomhunter.

Images Copyright © Tom Hunter




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