Lone and Lost

How many times did you have something in mind that was lurking between unconscious and conscious thoughts without actually surfacing as a clear idea that could be acted upon? How many times were you thinking of doing something but never actually got around doing it, not because of lack of time or motivation but only because the thought didn't really mature inside you?

Well this year-long project was the result of just these types of processes.

During my commute in the busy and hurried urban environment of London my thoughts would wander wildly yet when I would have seen a lost glove I would think that it could be an excellent subject for a small and quick project. This idea would pop into my head quite often but I wouldn’t act on it. At some point this idea matured into me and I thought, what a surprise, why not actually get to do it? With camera in hand I would grab every opportunity to take a few pictures of lone and lost gloves that I would find in the streets, in buildings, in parks and in one case in the sea. For each glove I would take a small series of photographs from various angles and distances. All photographs were taken in London between 2006 and 2007 with the exception of the glove in the sea which was taken in Sicily. Many photographs were taken around Greenwich, Walthamstow, Tottenham Court Road and several underground stations.

Working on this project made me realise that it could easily evolve into an obsession. I ended seeing gloves everywhere and almost every time I went out. So almost from the start it was evident that a time limit had to be set. The limit was set for 1 year. No more.

At the end of the year I took 288 photographs covering 45 gloves. Once these were collated the next step was to decide on their presentation. I tried a collage that would include all photographs but this was too chaotic. I then thought of forming short strips of photographs showing the same glove from different angles but didn't like the result that much either. The project was left in the e-drawer for a few years collecting e-dust. Eventually, as I wanted to see the end of this project I thought of forming separate collages of photographs showing the same glove. Each collage would consist of one main photograph as a background and then superimposed on it I would add other photographs with altered perspective. A couple of collages don't follow this rule but most do. In all cases I wanted to add some repetition in the collages.

Out of all the photographs 23 gloves were selected resulting in 23 collages. These are presented here.