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Visual time capsules
MICHAL BONCZA sees an exhibition of photography that offers intriguing glimpses of Britain
(Left) Untitled, (Right) Untitled

Jamie Hawkesworth: The British Isles, 2007-2020
Huxley-Parlour Gallery, London

 

HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON once said: “A photograph is neither taken or seized by force. It offers itself up. It is the photo that takes you. One must not take photos,” adding elsewhere that “it is an illusion that photos are made with the camera … they are made with the eye, heart and head.”

There is ample evidence here that Jamie Hawkesworth fully concurs as the work effectively displays much of the approach advocated by Cartier-Bresson. Particularly noticeable is the uniformly sublime composition, robust in appearance and mostly in close up which mesmerises.

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