Vacuum: A Concise History of Photography
Quadraphonic sound installation. 5mins 54 secs 2013

The second of three sound installations commissioned by the Grundy Gallery for the particular architecture of the Gallery’s rotunda space.

This second installation takes as its starting point the simple act of leafing through a book of visual images – ‘A Concise History of Photography’ by Helmut and Alison Gernsheim, published by Thames and Hudson in 1965.

It begins with the sound of the book being flicked through, the pages rippling as they fold over, then pages being slowly and deliberately turned along with the sounds of finger tips rustling against the grain of the paper. At first these sounds seem close and intimate, seemingly magnified by the recording apparatus,  over time, sounds build up and become layered until they resemble the sound of wind in the trees.