City Sketches explores the juxtaposition of the human shape against the architecture of London. It is a journey through City landmarks seen from a new angle.

Body versus architecture. Organic versus inanimate.  Lines versus curves, female versus male. Flesh against stone, steel and glass. A city is itself the cumulative  expression of the humanity that created it. The creation of this show is an exploration and ideas of that humanity intersect with the human form.

London : A Dancer's View by Gabriele Reuter

Architecture is alive, is sculpture. It is never indifferent or neutral to the situation it is confronted with. Every building is subject to a thousand interpretations, every body vehicle to a thousand memories. As a dancer, I never have the choice to be simply human shape, geometric statement, neutral form. I always am included entirely as a person, observer and performer. The presence of one body within an architectural landscape speaks of the presence of all bodies that have ever visited, all memories, all truths existed in this same place. A hand or a foot, exploring these constructed shapes tells stories of the millions of hand or feet that have been there before.

We live in a city of endless imagination, endless difference. Always surrounded by people I am sheltered in a vacuum of anonymity. I can create a personality that only has to exist in the here and now. A licence to be whoever you want to be in any moment. Surrounded by strangers, sheltered by the public. Room to play, to be free. To be free in the knowledge that you are just one in a million and no one really cares, or can be shocked by anything.

Gabriele Reuter

Tel : 07930 183 907

Email : gabriele.a.reuter@gmx.de

London : A Photographer's view

Finding the unexpected on your own doorstep and turning it into powerful visual expression is one of the hardest creative challenges. When we travel, the world is immediately fascinating as we discover something unknown - humanly, culturally, artistically and visually.

Finding insight and impact closer to home that is not superficial or cliched requires exploration and focus. For me, City Sketches is the discovery of new shapes, textures and contrasts in what I pass by everyday yet often fail to see.  It explores a new way of looking at man-made structures in juxtaposition with a human form, with spontaneous real-time staging. Only in a city like this could we create these intimate theatrical moments between the camera, the dancer and her surroundings so anonymously and unnoticed. The shapes and lines we have created here hit the pause button on our daily rush through the city, and humanise what surrounds us, bringing out the inherent beauty and power of the shapes, textures and contrasts that make up London.

Andy has been a photographer for over fifteen years. A London based internationalist, Andy has worked and lived in Europe, Africa, Asia, the US and Latin America. Inspired by Cartier-Bresson and the early twentieth century European photographers, but also adopting a fine art style and quality, Andy's pictures focus on people and their lives against the backdrop of landscapes, architecture, and traditions. Andy’s World Photography is cultural and essentially human, aiming to gain insight into people and their communities through exploring common themes across cultural and geographic boundaries.

Email & website: www.andycraggs.com