Leigh Backhouse
The Other World
Leigh Backhouse is a photographer who explores nocturnal natural landscapes and unpopulated public spaces in a dramatic, cinematic, way. Through his selection of imagery, his composition, as well as the richness of colour and texture in his final printed works, we are taken to places that are hypnagogic and otherworldly. While Backhouse avoids a specific narrative in his photographs the atmosphere created in his work leads our imagination to enter a place of stasis, mystery, mood, beauty and hidden meanings. Through his carefully constructed works the artist imports these intangible elements drawing our attention to what is not lit as much as what is lit, what occupies the picture as much as what is void. In this other world, Backhouse’s images appear blinding yet beautifully simple, scenes that by daylight are ordinary and harsh by night through his lens become objects of beauty and serenity.