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In 2010, Peter Marlow set out to photograph the naves of all 42 Anglican cathedrals in England. Over a decade later, as part of a touring exhibition in each of the 42 cathedrals, the collection arrives at St Paul’s Cathedral, where it will be displayed from December 6, 2022, through January 26, 2023.
Marlow once referred to the project as a ‘kind of reflective pilgrimage.’ As a contemporary return to the tradition of church photography in England, particularly the work of Frederick Evans and Edwin Smith, his typologies were taken in natural light at dawn, capturing the luminosity of each interior as daylight emerged from behind the altar.
Declared complete in 1710, St Paul’s Cathedral was the first cathedral to be designed by and completed by a single architect, Sir Christopher Wren. Marlow’s portrait of St Paul’s, pictured here and the penultimate to be taken in the series, was made in October 2011, the year that the Cathedral finished a major 15-year restoration. After negotiations with St Paul’s, the photographer was granted rare access to the building at dawn, empty of the usual crowds of tourists and worshippers and devoid of modern lighting, so that he could capture it as it would have been almost 300 years previously.
The task was a considerable challenge, and Marlow was particularly concerned that the scale should be right. He said: “It was important for me to keep a sense of the relative size of each nave, since some were enormous and others not. To do this, I used exactly the same elevation on the ladders and tripod, and kept the lens at a constant focal length.”
All income the Marlow Estate receives from sales of this print will be donated to the Peter Marlow Foundation. These proceeds will contribute towards their charitable mission; supporting photographic education among school age children from different socio-economic and cultural backgrounds.
Please note, fullfilment of this product will begin from Tuesday, November 29, 2022 for all orders within Europe, and Thursday, 01 December, 2022 for all orders within the US, and Rest of World.
