A Flash Of Red
If you’ve read my blogs before, you’ll have seen that I love going to exhibitions at Phillips auction house in London. They have a beautiful gallery and I really love the way they present the work they’re offering for sale. Last year, in March 2024, they held an exhibition called ‘Seeing Red’ in which all the work contained either a lot of red or a splash of red. It was one of the best exhibitions I’ve been to in terms of enjoyment and so much of the work being to my taste. Below, at the end, I’ll add a link to my blog about all the art I saw in 2024 which specifically mentions Phillips and ‘Seeing Red’.
I was thinking back to that exhibition this week and so I thought it would be fun for me and of interest to you if I curated my own little exhibition of images I’ve taken which contain a lot or a splash of red. I initially intended to pull out 10 images but as I went through them the list grew and I’ve now got 20. I think that’s about right though because you might feel a little deprived if you went to a physical exhibition and only saw 10 pieces. I’ve also tried to pull out a variety of genres and moods so that hopefully you’ll find the selection to be entertaining.
Firstly I’ve listed them with a few sentences or a couple of words about each. You can click on any image to see it in full screen. Then, nearer the end, I’ve pulled them all together in an online gallery so that you can tab through them in a slideshow.
First up we have a night view of Chinatown in London where the streets are hung with thousands of red lanterns for good luck. This was taken in August 2020.
The next came from a construction hoarding, unusually painted bright red, which had a light shining on it. I love this abstract combination of bright red and gold.
This striking red outfit was shown in the Dior exhibition at the V&A Museum in 2019.
Below is one of my photos from the exhibition which sparked the idea for this blog, ‘Seeing Red’ at Phillips auction house. There are 4 pieces of art within this image. The chair and footstool are by artist Lara Bohinc and are titled Big Girl Chair and Peaches Pouffe. The kitten painting titled A Sunken Dream is by Martin Eder. And, to the right of that, we can see A Bit More Somewhere by artist David Brian Smith.
You know I love street art and here was a standout piece taken in the location of Shoreditch under a railway bridge.
One of the many structures which are lit at night in Stratford is the ArcelorMittal Orbit, designed by artist Anish Kapoor and engineer Cecil Balmond. This giant sculpture now houses Helix, which is the world’s longest and tallest tunnel slide, according to their website. Daredevils only! This was taken last autumn in 2024. There are so many new and beautiful buildings in Stratford now and I do intend to get back there soon.
Another beautiful structure which was built only last year is this red bridge at Canada Water which crosses the dock. This beautiful bridge, designed by architect Asif Khan, has become a very popular local fixture in a short space of time. In the background we have, left to right, Three Deal Porters - work and retail spaces, The Founding - 35 story residential building, in the distance the City of London buildings including 221 Bishopsgate and the Gherkin, a residential tower block on Canada Estate, the brick chimney at the former London Hydraulic Power Company Pumping Station, Canada Water library by architect Piers Gough, and seen just behind and above that is Ontario House residential building.
I took this on a rainy night last November. While I loved being out in rain and didn’t mind getting wet, I got on a crowded bus home and by the time I got off just 10 minutes later, I had picked up a bug. It was quite costly in terms of my health and time that I couldn’t get out to shoot. I don’t know if you had the same experience last winter but the virus just seemed to drag on and on. I would think I had almost recovered and it would return with a vengeance. So this picture, for me, contains all those memories.
Revisiting this makes me want to get back down there to take some summer photos, especially now that The Founding is almost complete.The red of this bridge is really striking in the daytime as well.
This red block was taken back in 2019 and at first I had no memory of what I took the photo of. I looked back in my catalogue and I could see that I was in a ramen restaurant in Battersea at the time because of the surrounding photos. Then I remembered, I had taken a similar block coloured photo earlier in the year in Tokyo and maybe that had prompted a memory while I was eating noodles. Anyway, it’s a photo of my skin taken with the camera lens placed flat on my open palm. The one in Tokyo turned out pink. I find this colour of red mesmerising though, especially with the slight vignette around the edges and the lighter centre. Try it yourself and see what colour you get!
The OXO tower building is so beautiful and in this image below I made it even more symmetrical by mirroring it on the vertical axis.
The next photo of a girl in a balaclava is from a place I have good memories of, the Nomadic Gardens at the top of Brick Lane. I discovered it while mooching around taking photos all around the area. It covered a huge area and was a piece of vacant land that had sprung up impromptu cafes and theatres and various other fun things. This photo was taken on a sunny day when people seem to have dressed up to go there and just hang out, enjoying the buzz and the music. It had the nearest atmosphere to Glastonbury festival that I’ve ever seen in London. Everything changes in London though and the site was cleared a few years ago. The last time I was in the area, maybe 6 months ago, it was now a large flat expanse of land waiting to be developed.
This young woman was happy for me to take her photo and I only took one shot. One of many I took that day. Had I known that I’d really like this photo and it would be a memory of something that can’t be recreated, I perhaps should have taken at least 3.
This lamp with the name of the venue reflected in the glass behind was taken in Paris. I love to go to Paris in December whenever possible to see the Christmas lights and soak up the atmosphere. This reminds me of that time.
Closer to home is this ICM (intentional camera movement) shot taken in Battersea down by the river. The multiplied sets of lights bring a beautiful fiery red to the picture. In the background are the lit spans of Chelsea Bridge.
I find Kings Cross to be very inspiring on rainy nights. There are some amazing reflections and people scurrying about create nice city scenes. In this instance I was attracted by the reflection of the Underground sign which I always find very photgenic.
This lovely young woman happened to be working when I saw her and I was immediately struck by her beautiful red hair. She said she was happy to take a couple of minutes out for a few photos and it was lucky that there was a perfect background of the black painted wall nearby.
This little office building below is on the Isle of Dogs. There’s something so cute and quirky about it. It reminds me of a Wes Anderson film even though it’s not symmetrical.
The next is a cute little piece of street art from the Brick Lane area. Central London does seem to be the place for bright, primary coloured images.
The Mega Dome was taken at Winter Wonderland, another source of super colourful photos. This contains something I love to get into certain images, starbursts. You can get these using long exposures and very narrow apertures. This also has the advantage that it’s crisp, clear and shiny. It’s a look I like but it’s not always achievable. Taking night photos when it’s properly dark is a bit of a dark art even though I’ve been doing it for 6 years now. I’m never 100% sure of how they’ll turn out. I think the air quality plays a huge part.
What is a more iconic red item in the art world than Andy Warhol’s soup cans? I took this at Halcyon Gallery in February 2024.
And for laughs, we have a couple of oddities from 2020. In the midst of lockdown I tried a lot of experiments, product photography, concrete car park photography and these little trials where I was creating faces from inanimate objects. I can only think, looking back now, that I was starved of company (even though I was with my husband and daughter and met lots of people online) because I’ve never felt the need to try these out again :)
RED LINES
Click on the first, or any, image to see a full sized slide show of the gallery which I’ve titled RED LINES.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my selection! It’s been very good for me to do this exercise, to think about curation, variety, viewer interest and trying to successfully blend different shades of the same colour.
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Click here for a link to the blog I mentioned earlier which gives more information on Phillips and the Seeing Red exhibition Art That Inspired Me in 2024
Wishing you all the best for a great week ahead. I’d love to know if you have any favourites from the gallery, send me a message.
Loren x
