Luke Smith: Camera Obsura

Though his part-time job as a psychiatric nurse keeps him grounded in the harsh realities of life, Luke Smith, in the texts accompanying his photographs, often bamboozles the beholder with philosophical musings doubting the very existence of reality. A confounded Carol Cooper encounters an artist who, while tussling with truths, illusions and humanitarian concerns, produces images that are undeniably powerful and thought provoking

The mysterious, beautifully composed images created by Luke Smith invariably pose questions. Asking Smith to explain what exactly the questions might be, let alone the answers, can result in such erudite philosophical perambulations that anyone without a firm grounding in the works of the 20th century’s foremost thinkers can be left with an embarrassing mental snowstorm in which swirls a fresh batch of queries about the questions. Talking about his image of a surreal floating lady titled Reality, which explores the Nietzschean notion that all life is construction and myth, he befuddles me with, “when considering the falling woman I’m attempting to manifest incompatibility between the desire to free oneself of all illusions, to settle for nothing less than ideal certainty in questions of truth, and the need for life-preserving fictions which apparently must be believed to be true if they are to serve their intended function.” Quite so.

The story behind his witty and poignant series George is easier to unravel: noting the disapproval he encountered when he wanted to photograph his son George and other children at various events he took a series of shots of empty spaces where children should have been, thus commenting on today’s censoring of images of childhood. However, in expanding on the theory behind the project he references the French post-structuralist psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. “It was influenced by Lacan’s theory of the real, symbolic and imaginary. I wanted to offer the viewer the unassimilable experience and its representation, the missed encounter. In offering this there is an understanding that things exist showing the proto-concept of duality within the image where there is a presence and absence, which creates perceptions of the imaginary.”

With most of his projects, the accompanying text is an integral part of the process, in fact a starting point, with the images almost illustrations for the ideas he wishes to explore. “Much of my work is developed from research concerning the individual. It’s constructed with a suggestive narrative in response to a variety of issues shaped by our social, domestic, cultural and political environment.” Yet his photographs also stand alone as exquisite pieces of visual art and have notched up numerous prizes, including gold awards from the International Photography Awards, Prix De La Photographie Paris, the AOPs and the London Photographic Association. 

The London-based 44 year old didn’t discover photography until his mid-30s when he helped a friend who needed photographs taken for her art degree. “Her camera was an old Nikon from before the word digital existed, yet once I had it in my hand and started snapping that was it, I was hooked. The next day I went out and bought my first Nikon film camera.” He then went on to study photography, doing an HNC, followed by a BA at the University of Arts London, then a Masters at Westminster University. Since then he’s been with Millennium Images and Talbot O’Connor Photography Agency, had many exhibitions and sold photographs to magazines and journals. 

Loss, Lacan and London calling

Though his fondness for expanding on Lacanian theory might lead you to suspect he is all about the cerebral, Smith’s artistic motivation comes often from the heart. He is a humanitarian and the sombre tone and themes of much of his work invite us to examine painful individual and social issues. Initially trained as a psychiatric nurse, he still works part-time as one, needing to augment his photography income “to pay for the Bentley” he says. “In this field of work you see despair, suffering, abuse, helplessness and I feel this comes through into my work.” His project Isolation explored the loneliness of the elderly, the series Being Gone and Death Mask, along with the accompanying self-penned poems, depict loss and bereavement, while London Calling comments on the effects of the recession on some of the capital’s residents. “London Calling came from two aspects – my love of London architecture and the recession. I wanted to highlight the beauty of these iconic buildings but also show how the corporations and politicians who occupied them assisted in the downfall of our economy.” The images are subtle, with a slow-release, powerful impact. At first the eye is drawn to the glittering towers of Canary Wharf before one notices “the banking world looking down on the not-so-noticeable dead construction worker laying in the mud below.” The Houses of Parliament gleam on the horizon while in the shadows an elderly woman is hanging beneath the bridge that leads to a “city of desperation”.

Communication in isolation

Like most of his images, London Calling required meticulous planning and editing, with the landscapes and the individuals being shot separately and merged in post. Another planning- and post-intensive project was Disconnected, which explores the paradox that our increased digitally-enhanced communications can lead to the individual becoming physically cut off from people and from the environment. “Just to get  landscape images took numerous shots. In Oxford Circus there’s never a time when people or traffic are not there so I had to take around 15 shots and take a bit from one, then a bit from another, until I had an image with nothing but Oxford Circus itself. This was the case for many of the shots, using both short and long exposures to get shadow areas, plus highlighted areas, then merging them. Once I had the landscapes, I shot the people separately in the studio.”

Smith is not the type to wander around with a camera and wait for inspiration, he usually starts off with a concept, then plans and prepares his shots carefully. This way of working, coupled with his photography skills, would suggest he’d do well in ad campaigns, and indeed he says his goal is to have both commercials work and gallery representation. After all, he needs to pay for that Bentley. Is there really a Bentley, I wonder? In conversation, Smith comes across as a friendly down-to-earth bloke who likes a laugh. Maybe he’s teasing, or maybe he’s become so immersed in discourse on the illusory nature of reality that he actually drives an imaginary Bentley.