Tim Diggles as… 4

April’s Tim as… is an interpretation of Humphrey Spender’s photograph of Ben Nicholson, an artist who has been influential on me since the age of about 15, especially his abstract reliefs. This was not a great physical challenge like the last two, but a great challenge technically and in its staging, The original is a much more complex photograph than it at first looks, the lighting a great challenge. I have no fireplace in my flat, so had to make one up and I had to make the drawing/painting which features. So as with the others a fascinating process. I am going to do a blog on the challenges of making these photographs using my flat’s front room rather than a studio. Thanks go to my friends Emma for lending me the mirror and Wendy for the shelf, and to Catherine for her expert advice on lighting.

Humphrey Spender was an artist/photographer and his remarkable images of Bolton in the 1930’s are well worth exploring as are his paintings.

I am showing here two images, the first the black and white version, which the original is, and a colour version, which I feel adds a very different dimension.