La Tour Eiffel
2017Signed Dated Titled
From the series Grid System
Large - Limited Edition of 15 (1/15)
35 x 27.56 x 0.04 in
Year
2017
Reference
f0fe2cbf
"The Eiffel Tower, Gustave Eiffel's 1889 masterpiece, built for the World's Fair of that year. This contact sheet style image is one whole roll of film, 16 separate shots, taken with the Pentax 645 camera. This Grid System collection of work was inspired by the cubism of Picasso and Braque, hence I think the Eiffel Tower is a perfect subject, it is also possibly the World's most famous urban landmark and landmarks have a big psychological part to play on the cityscape.
Regarding cubism. In the early 1900's Picasso and Braque were very close and shared many ideas. One thing they had in common was a love of the new entertainment, cinema. They were intrigued by the possibility of recording an object from different perspectives, something the movie camera does with ease. Through Picasso and Braque's efforts to create the same concept on two dimensional canvas, cubism was born.
I use the style of the contact sheet to contain my own cubist efforts. To try to capture a compelling image of the famous tower, I have changed lenses as I look further up the structure, wide angle for the bottom row of photographs, standard lens in the next, telephoto for the top two rows. Strictly speaking much is wrong here in technical and graphic terms, but over time I have come to love it, just as the Parisians eventually came to love the Tower." - William Furniss
This is an archival pigment print on a beautiful baryta paper. Limited edition, signed and numbered on the back of the print. It is shipped in a tube. Please contact us directly should you wish to receive the work framed.
1970 London, United Kingdom
William was born in London in 1970, his early interest in science and design led to an engineering degree at Exeter University in England before beginning his photographic career in 1991. Initially William trained as portrait photographer assisting luminaries of the London scene such as Patrick Litchfield and Terry O’Neill. Life changed in 1993 when William was encouraged by friends to visit Hong Kong. Deng Xiaoping had proclaimed “To get rich is glorious” and the world’s focus had suddenly swung towards China. Fully intending to continue portrait photography on arriving in Hong Kong, his work took a marked change of direction. The alien visual landscape of Hong Kong reignited a fascination with documenting the immediate environment; the rural English landscapes of his youth now being replaced by the chaotic cityscapes of Asia. Initial simple and straight forward records on film developed into ever more complicated narratives through multiple exposures and contact sheets. William’s interest in cities led him to New York in 1999 with two years spent there developing his approach which today favours pre-visualisation of the image and in-camera manipulations to create a subjective but recognisable record of our time. Numerous exhibitons have been held of William’s work which features in collections in Hong Kong and elsewhere. His most recent show was a solo project at AIPAD in New York. He was also a winner of the Film and Analogue category at the 2019 International Photography Awards.
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Address
Hong Kong, Unit 2811 Hing Wai Centre
William Furniss Photography is an atelier based in Hong Kong. Favouring cityscape works that are a testament to the belief that cities should be vibrant, enjoyable, sustainable places that enable a positive future for us on this planet....