Blingers

Why is it each Christmas some people choose to cover their houses in bizarre luminescent decorations in an almost quasi-religious ritual? The enthusiasm with which the householders pursue these observances is almost a a throwback or even a yearning for a time before society as a whole claimed absolute secularity. Jesus, whose birthday they are indirectly celebrating, was likened directly to light by John in his gospel 'He was the true Light; He enlightens every man coming into the world.

This series of photographs are a means of exploring how this spiritual claim, that is intended to be both inspirational and transformational, becomes an 'electric allegory' in its own way providing hope and comfort.

The cheery appearance of the decorations often belies a terrific pathos and great personal hardship in the lives of the individuals behind the 'bling', like all of us they are in need of hope.

The subjects have been asked to pose in front of the camera quietly and calmly so that by a process of reduction the strange message of hope they have found may somehow materialise in front of the lens.

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