Matthew White
Backbone

details

2024
A5 portrait, 34 pages
Self-designed and published
£12
@whiteandwhitestudio

artist

Matthew White is an architectural photographer based in London. His personal work explores and interrogates the built environment, suburbia and journeys. Matthew uses scale, emptiness and geometric forms to convey his message.

publication

Backbone collates images from 2020–2024 documenting building cores as they pop up around London. These forms appear quickly but are usually fleeting, soon covered up, never to be seen again.

As well as being key structural and functional elements within high-rise buildings, concrete cores are ‘fascinating as they are a symbol of change, progress, money, the future and gentrification’, explains Matthew. These sculptural objects can be perceived as alien or imposing entities reminiscent of the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Their impact and meaning will of course depend on an observer’s perspective, but by documenting them Matthew not only creates a lasting record but hopes to elevates them above their functional purpose.

He explains that designing and putting together a zine for Backbone helped him to rationalise this body of work. ‘After four years of shooting, the zine allowed me to slow down, reflect, consider edits and envisage something more than individual images. I don’t see the zine as a final piece but it allows me to put a full stop – or maybe a comma – after the first four years and think about the next step.’

All photos featured on this page copyright Matthew White.

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