I discovered Mark Pearson’s work at a Plymouth University alumni show.  Pearson is a Scottish photographer specialising in photojournalism, covering conflict and natural disasters.  His work has taken him to places such as Pakistan and Israel and he has covered the after-effects of tsunamis and earthquakes.  He is particularly interested in man-made physical boundaries.

At the exhibition I saw the piece Zone A – A Palestinian View of Jerusalem which is a cyanotype triptych on concrete.  This piece was created in collaboration with concrete sculptor Noel Brennan.  The work depicts the wall separating West Bank Palestine from Israel, an unusually stark subject for a cyanotype, a method traditionally artistically associated with flora and fauna and commercially with the crisp, perfect lines of a blueprint.  In contrast, Pearson’s work enters the war zone, the concrete base a sculptural reference to the wall itself.

The monotone approach works well with the graphic, angular lines of the subject matter.  The textural surface of the concrete adds a hard, grittiness that reflects the harsh nature of the events happening in this environment.

http://www.markpearson.co.uk [Accessed 26 December 2019]