Toby Smith’s stunning photography largely focuses on environmental and social concerns. His spectacular ‘Light After Dark’ series is an aesthetic and energetic ‘re-visioning’ of the British landscape. Taking over a year to complete, with much determination, the collection of photographs documents every one of England’s 32 power stations. No digital enhancement was used; each image was created purely on film using time exposures that ranged from 5 minutes to 5 hours.
For Smith, the ‘Light After Dark’ assignment became more of an obsession than a photographic project. He mapped out both the geography and statistics of each station, learning of…
Toby Smith’s stunning photography largely focuses on environmental and social concerns. His spectacular ‘Light After Dark’ series is an aesthetic and energetic ‘re-visioning’ of the British landscape. Taking over a year to complete, with much determination, the collection of photographs documents every one of England’s 32 power stations. No digital enhancement was used; each image was created purely on film using time exposures that ranged from 5 minutes to 5 hours.
For Smith, the ‘Light After Dark’ assignment became more of an obsession than a photographic project. He mapped out both the geography and statistics of each station, learning of their role in providing electricity and the resulting environmental effects, and covered thousands of miles, often sleeping under the stars whilst the camera was exposing a scene.
Smith is fascinated by how the structures come alive at night, changing into something more reverent, sinister and otherworldly. Powerful site-lights illuminate the plumes of smoke and their imposing form; the mechanical eye of the camera perceiving detail and light levels far beyond our own nocturnal perception and the extreme exposures causing the night sky to take on its own hue.
Part of the intention of the project was to lift society’s judgment of these industrial sites; the fact that we view their presence as negative icons of pollution, yet are ignorant of the reliance upon their operation was interesting to Smith. By creating such seductive imagery, the viewer’s gaze is held, forcing a battle between the beauty of the photograph and the hatred of the subject matter in the hope that the visual conflict could illuminate our own destructive consumption of the earth’s energy resources and instill more responsibility. The changing horizon lines represent the juncture between our natural landscape and the man made structures they hold. Smith wants the audience to consider that the responsibility of the environment is their own and not just that of other nations.
‘The Pier’ was taken in February 2009 just after the heaviest snowfall in England for 28 years. A rare coat of snow highlights the ghostly remains of Brighton’s West Pier giving a hyper-real appearance. As no digital modification was used The Guardian, Sunday Times and Stern Magazine featured the work as a double page spread where the image was used as a metaphor for Britain’s recent economic collapse both as a result of the recession and inability to cope with the poor weather.
‘The Dishes’, which pairs well with ‘The Pier’, is also a site specific piece, but this time completed on top of the Lincolnshire Wolds. Capturing the abandoned and collapsed microwave dishes of RAF Stenigot, originally a radar base before being selected as a location for the cold war ACE HIGH project, the dishes once formed a relay system that stretched from the Outer Hebrides to Athens, Greece. The effect of the image is achieved by using a 3 layered approach with long exposures, a high powered location flash and then tungsten to paint the barley foreground.
The ‘Light After Dark’ series has been well acknowledged this year, being nominated for the Prix Pictet Environment Photography Prize and gaining Smith a place in the final of the ‘Young Photographer’s Shots Directory’ and the University Prize at the Nikon Discovery Awards. The work appeared in a 5 page feature titled “Light After Dark” in The Saturday Times in April and is represented by Getty Reportage.
The series also won Smith first place, two second places and an honourable mention in the PX3 Photography Awards and has appeared in many exhibitions, two which were solo.
The Pier has also gained exposure, winning the Silver Medal and Allen and Overy Award at the Royal Photographic Society in 2009 and has won “News Picture of the Week” in the Sunday Times and “Picture of the Week” in Stern Magazine. It featured as a double page spread in The Guardian and has been part of numerous shows.
Smith graduated from London College of Communication with MA Photography in 2008. During his studies he traveled to Perpignan Photojournalism festival, gaining feature representation from Getty Reportage. He currently lives and works in London where he will continue his projects in the energy sector in the hope to inform larger audiences through exhibition and editorial opportunities.
