Tucked around the corner of Blackfriars Street sits Téte-a-Téte Foto, a small exhibition space currently displaying a vast array of photographic works documenting the Edinburgh locality, and specifically, Edinburgh’s Old Town from a New Perspective. Shot by both on, Téte-a-Téte Foto represents a photographic partnership formed in 2008.
Using a mostly monochromatic colour palette, the photographs’ strengths lie in their manipulation and capture of light. Shadows fold across the image, with a stark contrast held between the black and white tones. Through the considered eye by which the photographs are captured, light itself becomes a medium, vital to the immaculate composition of the imagery. The photographs traverse several themes, including urban, street and portrait photography.
A dapper gentleman captured striding past The National Museum; archways and alleyways shot from interesting perspectives; coffee shops; people in pubs; parked cars; scrawled graffiti; mannequin heads shot through the window display glass; each photograph is a considered detail composing city life. As the viewer travels across the room examining building facades and street photography, the essence of the city spills into the space. Although it is a white cube gallery environment with static picture frames hung on the wall, the bustle of city life seeps through the photographs; the clamour of pedestrians, the chatter in pubs, the honking of car horns, the noise of traffic. Hung collectively they tell a story of the everyday in Edinburgh.
People in motion, people posing; with one Edinburgh local elaborately dressed in a quirky shirt and hat captured in full colour, slouching confidently in front of the camera. The exhibition reveals the hidden and silent beauty of Edinburgh life; how archways cast perfect evening shadows, the texture of urban structures rotting and peeling from heavy rain, ghostly reflections fleetingly visible as they are captured from certain angles.
The gaze of the photographer is bold and considered, reflective and observing. It is indeed Edinburgh’s Old Town shot from a New Perspective.