"Landscape and Industry" is both a set of photographs covering a range of landscapes and industries, and an exploration of how contemporary art can draw on the influences of early industrial "record picture" photography and 19th century "Naturalist" landscape painting. Photographed on large format in a matter of fact aesthetic, the subjects include Battersea Power Station, Birmingham car factories, Pennsylvanian coal mines, cityscapes of London, New York and Paris, the Bedford brickworks and the industrial remains on the Hoo Peninsula. As Michael Collins writes in the introductory essay: "The matter of fact nature of photography is its eloquence. Its creativity comes not from an a priori imagining, but a patient observation, and from that close reading, the photograph exposes an unlimited visual dimension. It is the inclusion of the unsolicited, unimagined and unwelcome that make the photograph feel so realistic and authentic. The photographic truth isn't stranger than fiction, it's more fascinating - At its prime, it is the visual art par excellence because it is wholly about looking. There is no mark making. Everything is observed."

Author Biography

Michael Collins' photography has been exhibited at the Barbican Art Gallery, the Guildhall Art Gallery, RIBA, ffotogallery, City Hall (London), The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, and other venues in England and the USA. He is represented by the Janet Borden Gallery, New York.