Ian Macleod

In both photography and historic preservation, I am fascinated by the intersection of people and place, and traces of memory embodied by physical space. Drawing on my background in journalism, architecture, and history, my work seeks to explore and document the changing built environment and the ways we inhabit it. Working primarily in street photography, I am inspired by the transience of urban space—a wide, fleeting subject to be recorded and collapsed into a singular instant. While much of my work is in traditional film photography, I am exploring the potential of ‘constructed’ space through merging digital and traditional media.

The images presented here, on first look, could be sorted into a number of thematic collections based on subject matter. The connecting thread among them is a sense of spontaneity and cinematic honesty—'cinematic' not in the definition of the visually dramatic image, but in capturing narrative. The urban (or suburban, or, for that matter, rural) experience is inherently a cinematic experience of interweaving narratives set upon a backdrop; motion pictures contextualize this into a coherent story, while still photography allows a level of abstraction and decontextualization. My photography, and in some cases, composites, seek to distill actor, set piece, and fictional narrative.

For more information about the artist, please visit his website.