Wild Pigeon

Briefly looking at Carolyn Drake’s documentary work this morning- her images are not dissimilar from many works I have seen over the last 6 months. There is the sense of banality, captured in small moments, but with a consideration to colour, framing and structure.  Whilst I don’t feel particularly connected to the images in her series, Next Door (1), I do like the structure of the below three shots. There is a sense of that fluid, ‘anti-aesthetic’ in these that I have been trying to replicate in my own work as of late.

One element of Drake’s work that I did find interesting was her book layout for the series Wild Pigeon (2). In this series, Drake uses a lot of collage, and also drawings on top of and around the photographs, but what I particularly liked was the little booklet that folded out from the middle of a large white page to reveal text. It reminded me of the flap books I used to make as a kid, and I feel that it gives a sense of intimacy to the book, as if the viewer is discovering a secret.

(1) Drake, C 2020, Next Door, photographic series, viewed 23 July 2020, <https://carolyndrake.com/nextdoor>

(2) Drake, C 2007-14, Wild Pigeon, photographic series, viewed 23 July 2020, <https://carolyndrake.com/wild-pigeon>