LONDON, ENGLAND.- The Robin Gallery is pleased to announce its forthcoming exhibition: “SeaChange: Thames – Recent Photographs of the Thames Estuary by Anthony Hopewell.”

“Hopewell’s project is situated between his yachtsman’s sense of the river as open, fluid, defined only by tides and channels, and his land-based practice as a photographer.”

The photographic works in this stunning exhibition explore the expansive and diverse tidal reaches of the Thames Estuary. The images investigate the notion of usage, focusing on the various demands of leisure, housing, and industry. Applying the forensic qualities of large format photography, Hopewell concentrates a dispassionate gaze on areas of coastline which are not considered “beautiful” in the traditional sense, but in which the intersection of the man-made with the natural creates its own aesthetic.

The Thames Estuary has been a source of inspiration for innumerable writers and artists over the years, and is a site remarkably rich in historical representations. While Hopewell’s images must necessarily be seen within this context, his idiom is “rigorously stripped of any romantic tendencies”, and conventionally picturesque locales as have survived in the area do not interest him as potential subjects. “Here are places and sites that resist our expectations of scenery and ‘heritage,’ and for which we can not fall back on our usual stock of responses.”

Much of Hopewell’s work is rooted in the landscape, particularly at the point at which the natural and the man-made collide. The works are all ‘neo-realistic’ in nature, being based in the tradition of ‘straight’ photography, but with the intent of going beyond superficial surface description. His photographs have been widely exhibited in England and North America, and are held in various private collections.

The Robin Gallery is a registered charity creating an international centre for documentary photography located onboard the world’s oldest complete steamship in the heart of London’s Docklands. The ship’s original cargo hold has recently been transformed into a 2000 sq. ft floating exhibition space and classroom.