In 2006, after fifteen years of collaborative practice, Susan Jowsey and Marcus Williams decided to invite their two children, Jesse and Mercy, to join their project, creating the collective F4. The body of work selected here forms part of that seven-year journey, and the making of it became part of their family life; as the project progressed, the family and its dynamics became the conceptual source of the work.

While the name may refer to a family of four, it is also the term used for the size of a lens aperture when it is relatively open — a mechanical way of seeing that allows plenty of light but only a shallow area of focus, surrounded by a vista that is less well defined. For them this alludes to a human tendency in perceiving the isolated moment.