DAVIES, John. PHASE 11. (London): Davenport Associates and The Photographer's Gallery, (1991). ASSOCIATION COPY

PRESENTATION COPY

DAVIES, John.
PHASE 11.
(London): Davenport Associates and The Photographer's Gallery, (1991).

4to (329 × 249 mm), pp.[64]. 12 colour and 18 black-and-white photographs by Davies and Peter Davenport. Texts by Les Hutton and Martin Caiger-Smith. Design by Davenport Associates. Colour photo-illustrated perfect bound wrappers, white, text in black and red; very light toning and wear to covers. John Davies’ presentation inscription in blue ink on half-title. Near-fine.

First edition, an association copy inscribed in the year of publication to Peter Fraser: ‘To Peter / from / John A. Davies / Manchester 27 May 1991’. Phase 11 was the work-in-progress title given to Exchange House, one of the buildings in the 14-phase development of the Broadgate site around Liverpool Street station in the City of London, which was largest office development in London until the arrival of Canary Wharf in the early 1990s. The architects of Exchange House were Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. The photographs show the various stages of construction and stages of completion between 1989 and 1991. These photographs are part John Davies’s larger body of work, Phase 11, exhibited at the Photographers’ Gallery, London 30 March - 11 May 1991, and thereafter on tour.

In his text Martin Caiger-Smith quotes John Szarkowski’s who wrote in 1959: ’Architecture is not only a collection of buildings, it is a process … Photography of architecture should be less preoccupied with the finished building - an object - and more interested in the human and technical processes which precede and produce it.’

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