I was writing about you.

My most recent feature written for Love Is The Law magazine, click the link to see lots more great stuff in our tumblr campaign. It is up to you guys to choose your preferred features of which we will publish in our 2012 print edition….. 

loveisthelawmagazine:

At age twelve Nathan Cook was given a 25mm Pentax camera by his grandmother. Drawing and painting was already second nature to him even as a child. However it was the camera which seemed to engage him, later forcing him to realise photography allowed him more creative options than fine art did.

Nathan went on to study photography and philosophy at schools of art in London and Leicestershire. This would explain the way in which his work tends to explore literature and psychology. He also tells me he attained a higher national diploma in professional photographic practice. However, he likes to think it is the practice he endured himself from a very young age which has allowed him to explore the dynamics of photography. On asking him how he feels about photography’s position within the art world today, he tells me he feels manual photography has been neglected and all photographers should explore their craft.

This would explain Nathans insistence on studying the subject of his work thoroughly in order to create images using various techniques. More often than not Nathan will build a whole set, creating a scene and capturing it using whichever type of camera seems fit. Studying photography in its entirety is the only way in which he could allow this to happen. It seems rather than capturing moments, he creates them, using photography as a means of portrayal.

‘What flees the light takes place in the dark’ explores a visual interpretation of his past dreams. Once the observer is aware of this intention, the photographs almost appear (in simple terms) as though the artist has climbed inside his own sleeping head, taking snapshots of his dreams. This of course not being possible, Nathan has taken advantage of reality by recreating them himself forcing past dreams to become real.

What is initially impressive here is the lighting. But it is not only the aesthetics which provoke attention; it is the surrealism of his work which acquires interest. Having studied the subject of dreams in preparation for this project, Nathan understands that visual imitation allows a more profound insight into the core meaning of the dream itself. He goes on to tell me that this in turn authenticates the minds ability to unconsciously create meaning.  

It seems Nathan’s sole aim is to force his audience to engage with the theoretical structure of his work in order to provoke thought. The appeal is not only in his skills as a photographer but also the obvious creative process of which he goes through in order to produce his material.

Written by Sarah Wilkinson