Named a poet of our times, Tom Capon presents his photographs at Art Jericho in his first solo show: City Rhythms. Using a camera, natural soft light and everyday people, Capon manages to capture the beautiful moments of life that would otherwise be missed – he makes the unremarkable, remarkable.
Set around Oxford and Oxford Street in London, Capon moves about the streets capturing movements, expressions and actions of the young people that live there. Things we are faced with everyday such as crowds, shops, fashion brands, buses, street signs and English flags (it had been a Jubilee and Olympic summer, after all) surround his subjects, creating chaos in the city. Yet, drawn into this chaos we find collective notes of serenity, simplicity and clarity and his photographs encourage us to discover more about the people in them and the lives that they live. Stripes and belts create lines and flow, gestures unknowingly mirrored by people create symmetry, and like colours unite the streets and subjects through the photographs.
We too are united with the streets and the people on them because of the sound effects created especially for the exhibition by Marley Pritchard – busy chatterings of the crowds, cars humming in the background, buskers playing “Here Comes the Sun” encircle the gallery, allowing us to be more closely involved with the photographs. The feel and sounds of the streets, the subtle moments that he captures: a tender moment between a couple at an ice cream shop, friends sharing cigarettes on the street, a little girl in awe of a Dalmatian balloon, and the pensive expression of a brunette with a Beatles shirt walking through a crowd (which was incidentally my favourite), render this exhibition rather special and particularly charming.
If you are a budding photographer, interested in urban life and fashion, or just want to see if you know anyone in the photographs, you should go and see this exhibition and experience these colourful streets captured so beautifully by Capon.
