Island Stories & Nigel Shafran

I went to the V&A in March with my course with the aim of getting inspired. I didn't really attack it with a plan and just wandered aimlessly. I found myself in a little side room that contained a exhibition of photographs - Island Stories: Fifty Years of Photography in Britain.  It was just a temporary thing unfortunately, and I think it is finished now - shame because I would have liked to have gone again. It was a beautiful ensemble of images, spanning 5 decades - charting changes in a gentle and understated way. 

I was particularly drawn to a collection of images by Nigel Shafran - I have included a few below. These images are taken from a series called - Ruth Book, a sequence of photographs taken between June 1992 and Jan 1995, whose main subject is the artist's partner - Ruth. 

I found them really beautiful, and quite moving. I think it is how he focusses on the small and seemingly insignificant and makes us take notice of them. I love the details, like the jars on the shelf in the kitchen - he doesn't frame them out of the image - these small things are important. I think as well they resonate with me because I am really interested in how we see things - how we focus in on certain things and don't notice others - and also how this translates into memory - what we remember from certain moments. Moreover it also links to how we use photographs as an aid for memory, and what we are trying to capture and preserve. 

I could look at these images for hours.