Flowers Under X-ray

Hugh Turvey trained as a designer / art director but on discovering photography he retrained under iconic photographer Gered Mankowitz. During 1996/1997 he started experimenting with x-ray/shadow photography after being asked to create an alternative ‘revealing’ image for an album cover. With the encouragement of the Science Photo Library he went on to produce an extensive series of coloured x-rays of everyday objects, which were first published on the 4 April 1999 in The Observer Magazine, LIFE, UK. In the same year Credit Suisse discovered Hughs x-ray vision and commissioned 6 ground breaking ‘motion x-ray’ European TV commercials… to date his work features in many international advertising campaigns, publications, collections worldwide.
There is a comic fantasy of ‘x-ray specs’. The idea that by just wearing special glasses an ordinary person can reveal a hidden truth….this is just awe inspiring idea….even for a 38 year old like me. This concept of revealing truth is one of the simplest structures in story telling and for me simply exemplified in the 1999 film ‘The Matrix’ when Neo (Keanu Reeves) has his epiphany, perceives his true environment and its structure is revealed. My work is physically and perceptually ‘on the level’ - Surface, transparency, depth and colour are its character. The fun is in the discovery of this character hidden in sometimes the most unlikely places.