Nicky 
Ancient and Modern – Tower Bridge and London Assembly Building
Ancient and Modern – Tower Bridge and London Assembly Building is the name of one of my latest composite photoartistic creations. It’s a composition I did as part of a project to represent the interesting theme of juxtaposition. It was particularly challenging because juxtaposition has to have context and be somewhat recognizable and real and at the same time be strange enough to take you a little bit by surprise. Which meant I had to create the context – ancient and modern architecture. Another way of thinking about juxtaposition is “opposites” or even “related opposites.”
To make this composition I combined several of my photos and used many blending modes, masks, paint elements, brushes and some vintage to contrast the old Tower Bridge and the very modern glass London Assembly Building. I extracted the people from another of my London urban photographs and they, along with the colour palette helped to make the overall feel very spacey and other worldly. Perfect for my theme. Photoartistry gives me a lot of creative freedom with my photos with a theme like this I had to work backwards and keep the original brief in my head in order not to stray into the realm of the surreal. And when collecting the ideas and the artistic materials, it’s critical to think of how they all work together. At the same time it’s important to play and have fun. Art is creating something completely new from disparate bits if necessary, and a vision. Thankfully Tower Bridge is instantly recognizable so it was a great place to start (plus I have many photos of Tower Bridge). I was very fortunate to have taken some photos of the London Assembly Building too(the architect is the same one who designed the Gherkin another of my favourite London buildings) and in fact this is a blend of about four of photos taken at different times
I never quite know how a final piece will turn out so as with all my work it is a question of whether I am moving in the general direction of the inspiration. After that it’s a question of trying different things and then deciding when to stop. The best feeling is when I feel what I call “the shift.” The only way I can explain this feeling is that it’s a time during the creation of a composition when everything just flows. I may have 100 layers or I may have 10. There is this shift when trial and error moves into a kind of knowing, in that I know exactly what I want to go where and for each element of the piece. It’s a fantastic and exciting feeling… and often it can appear after some days of working on a piece. It happened on “Ancient and Modern,” I just never know if or when it’s going to appear. In an update I will talk a bit more about my thoughts on juxtaposition. In the meantime, Ancient and Modern is an addition to my urban theme of Britain and iconic British icons, again with some emphasis on architecture given a grunge treatment.
Own this print – it’s available in a range of different finishes, including fine art paper and even wood prints. I created it with canvas wrap in mind though – I find the canvas makes the textures really pop and brings every single element to life. Browse or purchase in the artstore.
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