Dan Holdsworth

Mirrors: cg 18c, 2014.

Mirrors: cg 06b, 2014.

Forms: cg 04, 2013.

California: 01, 2004.

California: 03, 2004.

Dan Holdsworth is known for taking photographs on the edge of things. He began his work in more anonymous hinterlands of urban sprawl such as road services that snake around bleak countryside and unkempt grassy verges beyond fenced-off civilisation. Dan photographs both during the day and night, often he is found to shoot in low lit scenes.

"The work of photographer Dan Holdsworth is most cogently addressed under the sign of hybridity, the interaction of heterogeneous elements that occurs with greatest intensity at the planet's borderlines. This hybridity is manifest in Holdsworth's fluid oscillation between commercial project and more identifiably artistic enterprises."

HYBRID - combining of elements.

The series California was taken at night, under low light conditions so a f1.8 lens would've been used to take these photographs. The surrounding around the main feature/focus point of the image tend to be dark; surrounding the subject in darkness but it doesn't seem to engulf it, only bring focus to them and the little details within the key subject rather than taking away from it. In 01 the dirt from the construction in front of the building is built up in a mound which acts as a leading line, drawing you towards what appears to be the doorway of the building, enchanting you to wanting to know what is inside, seeing what stage the interior has got to in comparison to the exterior. Along with this you can see lights coming from within the building however you are unable to see what its source is, adding curiosity to the piece. From the scaffolding attached to the building you can see that it is still under works, this alongside the darkness hiding from you where it is adds mystery to the piece, who's house is it? where is it being built? - are there other people living by? It leaves open many questions for the viewer, causing them to construct their own thoughts and stories to the image rather than having the answers given to them.
His series Mirrors and Forms look at close up shots of parts of the natural world, more so towards the  details in rocks/mountains and how with the use of flipping and mirroring the image in post-production. The textures and markings in the stone are key to the pieces, it adds depth to the images, they don't appear to be flat as you can see the rough texture with how areas dip and have chiselled away. Parts seem to have been hit or had something crash against them, though unable to tell what from, showing that it is crumbling. There is a wide tonal range within these pieces, rather than areas of the image blending to one it highlights smaller details that you wouldn't notice if the photograph was taken from further out.
I'm interested in how Dan has captured the more anonymous hinterlands and how there is that sense of there being a lack of civilisation, though humans have impacted on some of these scenes. Particularly with the series California as it more shows the meeting of manmade and the natural world and how we change the world with what we create, whereas his series Mirrors and Forms look at the natural world and the finer details within it, taking a step closer to the subject.





Sources:
images - http://www.danholdsworth.com/works/
http://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/dan_holdsworth_resources.htm
http://www.theguardian.com/becksfutures2001/story/0,,461935,00.html