This is a story about light. It is about how I spent an inordinate amount of time waiting in the gutter, on the roof at Selby Abbey, for the sun to appear to wash the minstrels faces and create an image that is a record of emotion.

I was rewarded with a photograph that seems to bring them to life. It took many hours of skill and attention to make them and I wanted to get the best photo I could to honour the carver's work.

To do this, I set up my tripod and used a tilt-shift lens to frame the minstrels at eye level. There is a sense of being allowed to witness a scene that cannot ordinarily be witnessed by others - not simply a bird’s-eye view, but almost as though we have been given a glimpse into the mechanics of heaven. I created a composition with a hierarchy of lines that move through the architecture and draw the eye towards the minstrels.

The viewpoint temporarily removes the normal hierarchy between us and the sculpture. These figures were made to be looked up at from far below, yet here we meet one almost face to face. The camera gives us access to a relationship with the carving that its original makers could scarcely have imagined.

The minstrel appears to gaze out across the city while we stand beside it. For a moment we share its viewpoint. We are no longer simply looking at the abbey; we are heavenly minstrels too.

The partly obscured second figure suggests that the photograph has only revealed one fragment of a much larger population inhabiting the upper reaches of the building.

I'm glad the sky wasn't blue at the time - it would have taken away from the subject matter. The cloudy sky has also given a more proportionate light - sensitised for the subject matter.

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That aura, those echoes - the muted light is transporting. What a space to feel rooted in history. I'd love to make that journey myself; you've stirred the opera lover and architectural dreamer in me.

@sonatasips via X
The vaulted nave of York Minster glowing with filtered light
York Minster - light through the nave01 / 04

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