Imaginary View at Somerset House

When: 18 January – 10 February 2013
Where: West Wing Galleries, Somerset House, Strand, London, WC2R 1LA

Photographer Dan Tobin Smith and designer Rachel Thomas present Imaginary View, their first exhibition of photographs together at Somerset House. For nearly a decade the pair have collaborated on commissions for commercial and editorial clients including Acne Paper, i-D magazine, Another, Stella Artois, Orange, Visa and The Music. For Imaginary View Thomas and Tobin Smith have explored the shared interests, reference points and methods of working that have led to so many successful commissions.

Tobin Smith and Thomas work with real materials and film rather than computer-generated visuals. The photographs in Imaginary View are scenes of massive stage sets crafted from polystyrene, assembled and shot on 5×4 black and white film in various studios around London. One set featured an eight-by-eight metre ‘lake’ of milk, in which is reflected the fantastical geometry of a ruined island city.

Ruins3 shot5 RT2 Imaginary View at Somerset House

Alongside the photographs, visitors will see a number of these polystyrene sculptures from the shoots, recreated especially for this exhibition. Ranging in scale from delicate to majestic, these elements from the Imaginary View stage sets add to the sense of intrigue around reality, illusion and scale in the photographs.

The atmospheric scenes suggest an array of influences from the surreal compositions of De Chirico, to abandoned film sets from the golden era of 1930s Hollywood, Memphis design of the 1980s and Piranesi’s eighteenth-century etchings of ancient Rome. They are at once familiar but mystifying. “We were looking to create forms that are instantly recognisable, but also uncanny and able to convey the seductiveness that only comes from something that’s not quite real,” says Thomas.

XRuins5 Imaginary View at Somerset House

The images are outputted as large-scale photographs but viewers’ pre-conceived notions of scale are challenged by the intensely fine detail, rich contrast and tonal depth of the photographs. This effect was achieved by Thomas and Tobin Smith’s experiments with ‘arial perspective’ — light is bounced off smoke particles in the air, emphasising the distances between objects and the viewer. The effect is of a silvery, hazy atmosphere and epic proportions.

Thomas and Tobin Smith’s work together is about constructing a highly designed, tangible mise en scene and then working with Polaroids and film to perfect a final visual outcome. “We love to refine images in camera,” Tobin Smith comments. “Light, exposure, perspective — all the elements come together in the studio, it is pretty intense. It’s an event”.

Ruins3 shot4B RT Imaginary View at Somerset House Available to buy at the exhibition will be a limited edition, boxed set of photographs printed via the intriguing and semi-archaic method of photogravure. This intaglio copperplate printing technique is a rare craft today, with only a handful of printers still using the method. “It’s an old and very beautiful printing method,” says Tobin Smith. “It seems to make photographic imagery look quite illustrative. It has a great contrast but has a huge amount of detail in the shadows and mid-tones.”