See red (and blue, green, yellow) with John Pawson in London
Photos from the architect's exquisitely colour-banded book Spectrum stand out in a hit new exhibition
Individually, John Pawson’s photographs are exquisite snapshots from a master of the minimalist form. Best known as an architect, Pawson has been using his camera as a kind of visual aide memoire for years, amassing an archive of acutely observed and composed images.
However, the real joy in Pawson’s photographs lies in viewing them en-masse. His new book Spectrum offers the viewer just that, with 352 pages of John’s pictures, arranged in pairs and ordered by colour. His new London exhibition, reproduces those pairings in an innovative gallery setting.
Pawson’s Spectrum installation forms part of A Shade of Pale exhibition, a new show at the Store exhibition space curated by Carrie Scott, which focuses on the intricate journey one takes when looking at a series of photographs.
Housed inside a brutalist office building on the Strand, the show presents the entire chromatic sequence of Spectrum - from cloud white to galactic black – in square prints, strung on taut wires, and spaced out equally across the room.
The show is free, and open until June 2. Find out more about it here, and to sink into a real world of calm and reflection while leafing through John’s pictures at your leisure, order a copy of Spectrum here.