“No average contents” Photographs by Andrew Brooke.
An accidental collection of matchboxes that built itself. As objects that had passed through my life they evoke memories of experiences, some good and some bad, some happy and some sad. Each one is related to a person, a time and a place in my life, however brief or protracted, significant or insignificant. Behind each one there is a story. As certain as a match being struck burns, something happened.
When I started to photograph these matchboxes they took on a new sense to me. They opened doors in the imagination, no longer did they just evoke stories that depended on having been there; as memory blurred fact and fiction they became keys to stories for everyone to imagine or remember. Stories of no average contents. Did I really ever have dinner with Quentin Crisp?
________________________________________________________________
Andrew started his working life as a runner in TV commercials production, at first working with advertising photographer and commercials director Barney Edwards, a job that required technical proficiency and adept production skills. Via a long trip to Africa, short sprees in various jobs within TV commercials and a stint in New York, he found work at RSA Films in London as a Production Manager, where he met David Bailey. After two years Andrew moved to work independently of RSA Films as David Bailey’s producer for nearly five years before leaving to pursue his own course.
This decision led him eventually to film school in Paris, to explore a more creative path, breaking from production to work with both film and photography, as a cameraman, director and photographer.
He has traveled extensively and worked on documentaries, short films, feature films and commercials. He has taught at the International Film School in Paris and guest lectured at France’s premiere film and photography university, Louis Lumiere. In recent years his photographs have been sold through galleries, bought for private and corporate collections. He combines his personal photography with commissioned work, and filmmaking.
This is his first exhibition and more of his work can be seen at www.andrewbrooke.com
Show runs from Wednesday 29th July until August 16th '09.
The gallery is open daily Wednesday to Sunday 12noon to 6pm or by appointment
