Shot rapidly over just a few days \u2013 from the 14th to 16th of November, as the title suggests \u2013 Davison worked with casting director Coco Wu<\/a> to street-cast all his subjects. The models they selected from the streets of London are all very different from one another, but they each possess their own uniquely anachronistic quality. \u201cI always look for faces that feel like they could be modern, but they also could be from the 1920s, or they could be from 200 years ago,\u201d Davison says. He deliberately omitted a year from the title\u2019s date; he didn\u2018t want it to be anchored in a specific time. \u201cI like the idea of this book being found by someone in the future who has no idea how old the pictures are. I wanted that mystery,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n The stark styling of the series amplifies its timelessness. The images are close-cropped and many of his subjects wear the same monastic-style hood to obscure their hair and any other extraneous defining features that might date the pictures or detract from the intensity of the face. \u201cSometimes the hair was too modern or specific, so the hood is an equiliser,\u201d he explains. \u201cIt hides everything apart from the face. There are no headphones or jewellery. It\u2019s an exercise in simplicity, paring back the portrait to its most essential qualities. I\u2019m always interested in how much more we can simplify this to its most pure form; portraits focusing on the face.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n What makes the perfect portrait? Having accumulated a multitude of shots of each sitter, how does Davison select the defining image? \u201cThere\u2019s definitely an instinct to it,\u201d he reflects. \u201cThere are also habitual things I do. For instance, there\u2019s only one photograph in the series where someone\u2019s looking directly at the camera \u2013 everyone else is in the middle distance, or looking away. I\u2019m trying to find all those transitory moments where the subject is a bit less aware of what\u2019s happening; where it feels more of a caught moment \u2013 that in-between expression where they\u2019re somewhere else in their head. I find, when a viewer looks at them, there\u2019s more space for meaning. If their gaze is direct, there\u2019s power in that, but sometimes less mystery.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n If the averted eyes of Davison\u2019s subjects are less confrontational than direct eye contact, inviting the viewer to contemplate the portraits more deeply, then the scale of these pictures is also alluring. At approximately 11 x 8 inches, each print is relatively modest in size. \u201cThey\u2019re quite small as objects. We found that people achieve a stronger connection to them [when they\u2019re smaller]; it invites you to come closer. Originally, they were almost like postage stamps, but we decided that was too small.\u201d<\/p>\n The texture of the prints themselves also requires closer inspection; the exhibition demands to be seen close, in real life. Davison used a technique called photopolymer gravure \u2013 an intaglio printmaking technique that transfers photographic images onto a light-sensitive plate for printing on a press. Having shot the originals digitally, this process is physically more satisfying. As with gardening, there\u2018s an element of \u201cgetting your hands dirty\u201d about working with ink that appeals to Davison. \u201cIt\u2019s messy,\u201d he says, \u201cIt\u2019s like being connected to something physical. It gives you the feeling of producing objects rather than digital files. And, because the images are quite simple, it just adds to the character \u2013 you get imperfections, so each one is unique and different.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The high-contrast effect of the printing technique is also a part of Davison\u2019s desire to distil the process down to the purest form of portraiture; the stark shadows simplify the contours of the face in a way that recalls Bergman<\/a>\u2019s The Seventh Seal. Francis Bacon<\/a> is also a touchstone. \u201cI\u2019m always interested in reducing something down to its most essential, pure form. With faces, because we are programmed to recognise faces so easily, you can get away with so much more abstraction than with other subjects. Francis is a master of this,\u201d he says. Like Bacon, Davison\u2019s early brush with Catholicism touches his work in particular ways, often unconsciously. Some of his portraits from the exhibition are reduced to a form in which they could almost be stencils or religious icons, reminiscent of the sculpted stone faces adorning the facade of cathedrals. He\u2019s not religious, he explains, \u201cbut you don\u2019t know how much all those Sunday church visits as a child stay with you\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/a>
![\"Portraits](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/470039.jpeg\")
Grace CPhotography by Jack Davison<\/p>\n<\/a>
![\"Portraits](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/470031.jpeg\")
GregoryPhotography by Jack Davison<\/p>\n