A snip of Don Herd’s snaps!
An old school chair, lost on some urban playing field, a long, lonely and intimidating tunnel, and finally an image which implies a sneaking glance at a dilapidated town. These images are sleak, sleak with a definate ‘28 Days Later’ feel to them, that feel being “Where has everyone gone?!”
Yet there is a substance behind the initial aesthetic appeal. Take the image of the classic school chair, an object synonymous with restrictions. Memories of asking a teacher for permission to go to the loo, being met with “It was lunchtime 25 minutes ago, if you didn’t need to go then on your own time, you don’t need to go now”. The kind of logic that resulted in many a school child at some point in their educational career going home with their own undies in a plastic bag, whilst sporting a nice pair of Lost & Found Y-fronts. Yet in this image, the chair is in a new world. It is saved from previous restrictions and placed in the realm of possibility.
The images seem to invite the spectator to tackle them. To take the spaces, the objects, the misconceptions and make of them what they will, to make their own new chances. This transformation of space and objects is a strong theme within the photographer’s work. Don Herd, a designer and photographer who devised the concept behind the ‘Create A Memory’ chair, as depicted in the image. An innovative an interactive piece which can be viewed in greater detail, along with his other work at http://www.oistudio.co.uk/donphotography.html
