Flowers in Dark Room by John Stoddart

About

An ambitious and unusual project has been undertaken by the photographer John Stoddart, in a multi-layered, dual exhibition of his work, accompanied by words from the renowned poet John Armstrong. The Gallery is separated into two distinct and different bodies of work. The first is a body of work of a number of images echoing a central triptych, the foundation theme, based on Caravaggio's painting of ‘Salome'. Each panel of the triptych is accompanied by a poem by John Armstrong, the strength of the words colouring and referencing the imagery. The Exhibition then moves on, showing many more of John's portraits both old and new. Examples being a beautiful Tilda Swinton in the days when she was Derek Jarman's muse, to a modern study of Marco Pierre White that would easily pass as a Bond villain. The overall theme of the exhibition has a melancholic thread running through each individual portrait, which reflects the sometime fickle face of fame.