In an antique centre in the Home Counties the other day I can across a box of photographs of artwork. For the most part they were photographs of female life studies and according to the box they were the record of one person's artwork. Each was mounted up passe-partout style and each had meticulously recorded details on the back. It was a strange thing to have done with the work of someone so obviously amateur. But at the back of the box, three male nude studies. From the notes on the back I could see that the originals were much larger, full-sized sketches. I imagine that those originals wouldn't have caught my eye at all. But the process of photographing them and shrinking them down to three inches square has done something to them I think, made them 'bijoux', given them the quality of little engravings or prints. I was charmed by them. Not the easiest things to photograph (again) for the blog, but I hope these images give something of the flavour of them.
