Wednesday 24 September 2008

Rob Ball




















All images ©Rob Ball

"In December 2006 the hospital in which I was born closed after 97 years of service. The site was bought by a property developer and will soon consist of over 800 new dwellings, in an effort to meet the governments target for 3 million new homes by the year 2020. The resultant large format photographs show the functional spaces as the last user left them, from the maternity block to the morgue. All the images are taken from inside the hospital in an effort to compound the claustrophobia I often feel in institutional spaces. The title is taken from the original name of the hospital when it started life as a convalescence home for children before the First World War."

This is the blurb from Rob Ball´s eerie project The Grange. While the work very much follows the well-trodden territory marked by cold and clinical depictions of sterile spaces whilst drawing attention to the presence of absence etc, it is still very well executed and contains some stunning shots.

Rob Ball was born 1977, England and graduated with an MA in Photography, University of the Arts, London 2006 and an HND in Photography, Norton College, Sheffield 1996.In terms of employment, he has worked as a Scene of Crime Photographer, Forensic Photography Teacher, Picture Editor and Sports Photographer.

Exhibitions include Breathe, East Thames Gallery, Stratford, London July - Oct 2008 Humble Arts Group Show no.15 July 2007, The Redemptive Beauty of Life After Death, Bonnington Gallery, Nottingham, Feb 2007, Magenta Foundation - Emerging Photographers, Toronto, Nov / Dec 2006, LCC MA Final Show November 2005, LCC MA Interim Show February 2005 and LondonArt, Workhouse Gallery 2003.