Encounters

Abstract

The photographs by the British artist Roger Palmer, illustrated in this issue, take us to places such as South Africa, Canada, Scotland and Ireland, but in ways quite distinct from photojournalism. Palmer uses shallow spatial arrangements and a dialogue with many forms of art -- his own wall drawings, vernacular art, abstract art and also western European painting --to make unpeopled images that imply some of the difficulties of cultural negotiation. The viewer is placed in an encounter with surfaces, reflections, traces of wear and tear from passing humans and signs that they have left, both legible and illegible.