Reviews

London Polygon and the book Room

"London Polygon" a map, a big book, a small book and ephemera by Christian Nolle.
Presented at the book Room
A one day international study day at the University College of the Creative Arts, Farnham.
June 15 2006.

As a keen photographer of planes, Christian Nolle became fascinated by the air traffic over London. Planes are taking off and landing at five different airports, everyday, for about 20 hours a day. He began to wonder how they managed it. So he did some serious research into air traffic control and discovered that each airport has a series of waypoints as aerial signposts which can be plotted and read on the plane navigation systems. These became the "London Polygon", a project achieved by camera, bicycle and GPS plus hours on the internet learning about air traffic control.. It all sounds very nerdy, but Christian Nolle has created something intriguing and witty.

The two pieces of print that I came away with are a map of 13 cycle journeys and a small handstitched book called "Cycling with Christian" containing a written account of each journey. On Sortie VIII "I start my journey by cycling down through Streatham - past LON14 that I photographed during Sortie III. The car dealer is still there but this time I dont stop." The map of the cycle journeys which is on unassuming cheap paper shows the 13 Sorties each a different colour with all the waypoints shown and like any professional travel log all the basic data are listed for each Sortie with the distance in nautical miles as used by airplanes.
The best way to see more of this project is to go to http://www.cnolle.com and look at Heathrow.

The book Room "a case of books", was an excellent day organised by Anna Fox, head of photography at Farnham. It was entirely funded by the college, so no attendance fees, just book well in advance. All aspects of the photography book were covered from design history at Thames & Hudson to presentations by emerging book artists. "Off the Shelf" were interesting 10 minute slots for photographers or curators to talk about a book of their choice. There was an exhibition of books in the gallery, books sales by a small selection of specialists, an excellent lunch and a witty and informative programme value notebook.

Susie Medley
Fotonet

• John Goto
• Green in Black and White
• Photo London 2007
• Paris Photo 2006
• London Polygon and the book Room
• Jude Wall - Re-form
• Welcome to Britain
• Derek Henderson - The Terrible Boredom of Paradise
• Empty Days by Paddy Summerfield
• Arles 2005
• Boyd & Evans 2005
• Frieze 2004
• Javier Silva Meinal
• Arles 2004
• Frieze 2003
• Happy Vicitims by Kyoichi Tsuzuki

Return to reviews page | top of page