Stephen Gill: Archaeology in Reverse

Stephen Gill has learnt this: to haunt the places that haunt him. His photo-accumulations demonstrate a tender vision factored out of experience; alert, watchful, not overeager, wary of that mendacious conceit, closure. There is always flow, momentum, the sense of a man passing through a place that delights him. A sense of stepping down, immediate engagement, political exchange. Then he remounts the bicycle and away. Loving retrievals, like a letter to a friend, never possession. What I like about Stephen Gill is that he has learnt to give us only as much as we need, the bones of the bones of the bones.