David Moore, The Last Things

The Last Things

David Moore

Publisher
Dewi Lewis Publishing
Year
2009
ISBN
9781904587668
Specifications
Hardcover
30 x 20 cm
96 pages
64 colour photographs
Text by Chris Petit and Angela Weight
Published with support from University of Hertfordshire, Arts Council England, Arts Council Northern Ireland, Belfast Exposed, Wolverhampton Art Gallery and Central Saint Martins

David Moore, to quote the writer Iain Sinclair, is a ‘photographer of secret spaces’. Between September 2006 and April 2007 photographer Moore was allowed unprecedented access to a Crisis Management facility below ground in central London. This space will be used as the first port of call in any situation where the State is under threat. The environment is sustainable for extended periods and is part of a larger network. Over an 8 month period Moore was able to observe a live working space, continuously on standby, and fully prepared for the most extreme national emergency. The Last Things develops ideas about the institutions of government and the manifestations of power first seen in his book The Commons (Velvet Press 2004), but adopts a different visual approach. The facility’s hermetic, tightly regulated environment, artificially lit and air conditioned, is prescient with the threat of crisis. At once sophisticated and touchingly ordinary, part military and part civilian, Moore has documented its labyrinthine depths with chilling clarity. Small areas of certain images have been digitally altered at the request of the MoD to protect what they consider to be sensitive information. All of this begins to hint at the relationship with the MoD and imposes a conceptual requirement on what has become a censored document. Moore’s photographs are accompanied by an essay from the film-maker and novelist Chris Petit.

More by David Moore

More from Dewi Lewis Publishing

Spine Index, an archive of independent photobooks

FIND A
BOOK
/
If you leave this unticked you are logged out when you close the browser, or after 12 hours without activity. Cookies and privacy.
/
one year, or a range like 2015-2020
one or more, separated by commas
full or partial
a name, or design: / text: / edited: / translation: and a name

ARCHIVE

Loading…

PUBLISHER

#

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

V

W

X

Y

Z

ABOUT

The project

SpineIndex is an archive of independent books on photography and visual culture: photobooks, publications, design books and self-published editions — the kind of work that rarely makes it into bookshop windows or mainstream catalogues. It exists to document, connect, and keep visible a world of publishers, artists, and makers who operate outside conventional distribution. A living reference for anyone who takes this territory seriously — collectors, researchers, students, and the simply curious.

Images and rights

Covers, interior pages and descriptions are shown to introduce and identify the books, always crediting publisher, author and photographer and linking back to the publisher. We ask publishers for their permission, and we remove anything on request within 7 days. If you are a publisher, an author or a photographer and you want something changed or removed, write to info@spineindex.it.