Introduction to Anthony Bailey’s photography

Today I am very pleased to present photographic work of Anthony Bailey. This short piece, an introduction to his work, will initiate a series of this week’s posts: first an interview, then an opportunity to showcase one project and finally a selection of one photo picked from the images published during the whole week, which will be later printed on a t-shirt.

Anthony Bailey is a photographer from Ontario, Canada. Growing up in the Greater Toronto Area, Anthony has used his immediate surroundings – suburban and rural landscapes to document the evolution of his frame of mind. His work displays a very interesting mix of familiarity and unknown personal territory.

It is not exactly a photo journal but still you can’t avoid the feeling of intimate moments being shared. Another strong trait of his work is the feeling of the anxiety and the pressing need to capture the right moment, not in the Cartier Bresson’s meaning of the term though. Anthony is not shooting action happening on the street, you feel like he is rather hunting internally for the point of contact between his observing consciousness and the external world, even if the exterior is seemingly static and devoid of tension.

greatest [of all time]

BYR

A good example of this is his landscape work like this image from his Etobicoke Stroll. It is a strong, monolithic, back lit composition where the mass of trees acts together to evoke the feeling of calm darkness. The very nice detail touch is the sun rays cutting through.

etobicoke

Again, this image from his Cloud ATLAST series operates in the similar manner with the tiny detail of lit windows in the mass of the building. He writes about this photograph: ”I was in Toronto with my brother, and a huge cloud just came over the city, it was so dark. It didn’t even rain. It was the evening, a huge overtaking of darkness, and then the sunset. All in like, 30 minutes. That day was prophetic.”

still working

There is a strange longing in his imagery. I think he feels like a hero waiting for a journey that is not coming. Take this image of a young man leaning against an open car window, him out of focus and the exterior in sharp focus. Weather he is actually dreaming or not doesn’t really matter, if there ever was an image of a dreamer, this is it.

feelin myself

Anthony’s photography is very tangible and you can sense his presence in every picture he takes. Sometimes he puts himself straight into the frame, like in this beautifully composed image where he is looking down at his feet, tracing his own steps or when he is looking up at his hand against the light.

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Reach Out 1 of 5

And then you get single gems like those:

be aware

 If you enjoyed reading this post stay with us for more of Anthony Bailey’s photography.  Also you might want to check his website to find out more about his work.

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