Ghoti**

Whilst photographing some rather lovely and neglected old tools in a neighbour's shed, I was struck by the similarity of some wrenches to a small shoal of fish. Amused and intrigued, I began to look for, and find many more. The outcome was this 'Icthusian Fantasy'. Based on little more than a passing visual likeness, through arrangement, lighting and colour the heavy lifeless metal objects are transformed and imbued with the boyancy and life of marine creatures and plants, becoming a bizarre and fascinating coral reef.

The composite image below is made up of 20 separate prints, each from a black and white negative, scanned and coloured. The original set was printed conventionally, dual split toned blue and yellow, and then hand tinted using water colours.

Although achieving consistency of image quality across 20 separate prints caused me a few headaches, I was rewarded with a Fellowship in Contemporary Photography by the Royal Photographic Society.

**Ghoti - pronounced "fish", by enunciating the gh as in enough, the o as in women, and ti as in station.


Old sanding discs, gardening gloves, nails, screw, drill bits, staples, saws, hammers and a reclaimed shed door provides the backdrop and seabed.
Pliers, cutters, pipe wrenches, mole grips, tin snips, glass cutters and numerous other tools "swim" through.
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