Alexander Brattell, John Cole, Lauris Morgan-Griffiths and James Robertshaw - 14 Months of Solitude

Silverhill Press Photography

Our photographic conversation began in April 2020, during the early days of the Lockdown. The aim of the project was to create something positive out of Lockdown. We thought, why not make the best of difficult times, and keep our creative juices flowing by taking our photography into a fresh direction. There were four of us - John Cole, Lauris Morgan-Griffiths, Alex Brattell and James Robertshaw - and one of us would take a photograph, send it to the next person, who would then respond to that image in their own way: in colour, shape, feel, or texture. There were no rules, no brief or theme; the images could be literal, abstract or reportage. This continued in a circular way for two and a half rounds, making 40 images.

Occasionally the recipient would have no idea what it was they were looking at, or indeed, how to answer but then we reminded ourselves that conversations meander, change, hiccup and peter out, and so it was with our photographic conversation. The result is an extraordinary silent pictorial chat, skidding around subjects and genres. With a touch of serendipity thrown in when the creator seemed to respond to earlier ‘comments’ although no one knew what earlier participants had posted.

46 pages of photographs and texts