Dominic Turner – False Friends

Review by Bill Edwards •

Dominic Turner’s premier monograph False Friends opens the viewer to a world of subtle exploration into the dark and not quite so recognizable places. This engaging work explores the shadows and other ghostly details we form in the imagination. This collection of photographs contains both the familiar and the ethereal qualities that force us to ponder and question the truths we are presented with in everyday life. Turner’s images delicately challenge the viewer with an editor’s touch of suggestion that allows the view to take their own journey and determine their own validation within. Ambiguous elements are presented in a decisive way, evoking a comfort within the darkness of the unknown, suggesting not all questions require an answer. The viewer is forced to evaluate their interpretation into the shadows as their own.

“There are those who would have us believe that the scariest of monsters dwell in the shadows and that we must be on permanent guard. I prefer to think that, while always striving to increase our understanding of the world, we can acknowledge and accept the things we do not know and bathe in the soothing powers of the shade.”

Turner’s capture and post-process incorporate wonderfully into this work. We are presented with skillfully printed images bathing in the coarse grain of high-speed monochromatic film that is purposefully exposed to enhance the tactile feeling of the media along with playing with the details within the shadows. It is in this process the ambiguous transgresses into the deeper working of our mindful explorations.

The essence of a silver halide image is embedded within a paper medium we take for granted. Cherished and placed often as a sacred memento, the thought of hiding the unnecessary in the darkness requires care, brevity and the need to toss out the rules. Challenging this netherworld of gritty opaque calming softness, Turner applies his skill beyond the art of capture, focusing the core of the image while defining the negative space into a place of truthful reconciliation.

There is a reoccurring theme of paths taken or available paths suggesting negative and positive outcomes from the selection. Turner provides us with multiple views of his work. These alternative views are both compelling as escapes as well as satirical to the commonplace of full illumination. His choice to produce this project provides an authentic moment in time when many of us question the truths we are presented with. The expectations of light and dark in a traditional sense are augmented by the artist’s eyes incorporating the tactile feel of a traditional silver-gelatin-sourced imagery. The palette of selections provides the viewer with everyday locations and perspectives that are not quite as they seem. These normally friendly environments and objects are false, muted in their brilliance where the solace resides in the voids of a barely perceptible darkness.

Most importantly, we are reminded that we create our own monsters, whether in the shadow or exposed to the light to be seen for what they really are. He has achieved this monumental task engaging his viewer by provoking the imagination, deep monochromatic moods rich in granular textured features allowing us to explore and find the path to our internal truth. Lastly, Turner provides a world the viewer can return to and re-interpret time and time again. The reproduced image quality of the print work provides just the necessary detail to delve deep within. The flat matte paper choice and span of paths once taken will draw one into reviewing the subtle details within these images, finding new comforts within the shade.

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Bill Edwards is a fine-art photographer from Tustin, California.

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Dominic Turner – False Friends

Photographer: Dominic Turner (resides in Dublin, Ireland)

Post Synopsis Text by Dominic Turner

Language: English

Hardback with illustrated cover, 112 pages with 51 monochrome photographs; 9 x 11 inches (28.5 x 23.5 cm); printed in Germany by Optimal-Media on 120gsm Fedrigoni Arena Natural Paper; First Edition of 750; ISBN 978 1 73948 3807

Photobook Designer: Duncan Whyte

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