HAY HILL GALLERY: TWO CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHERS

For the next three weeks, Hay Hill Gallery is to present the extraordinary worlds of two contemporary photographers.

Marco Sanges is the fantastic storyteller who creates his photographic narratives in cinematic sequences. In 'The Indecent Eye’, the distortion of Sanges’ silvered lens suggests that all is meaningless, nothing has purpose.

Within such surreal walls, logical arguments fall into nonsense; eloquent speech collapses into gobbledegook and the inevitable outcome is silence. As a result, the subjects are trapped in cruelly endless mimes, menaced relentlessly by incomprehensible outside forces. Borrowing stylistically from the silent movies of the 1920s and 30s, the players gesture helplessly from the other side of their screens. Aghast, afraid, astonished, their expressions are enormously exaggerated.

Darkly enchanting, these photographs are touching in their depiction of human frailty and strength. Once the metaphysical rug is whipped out from under your feet, you are forced to come to a conclusion, make your own mistakes and see the funny side. Suddenly, you too are part of the picture, rooted to the spot, wildly gesturing and making peculiar faces. Afterwards you might scratch your head and wonder what just happened, but Sanges is a magician, an unhinged puppet master with a camera. As you step back out into the June afternoon, come rain or shine, you may feel you’ve a touch of sunstroke - but it’s only your mind playing tricks on you again.

Having been unsettled by Sanges, you may wish to re-orient yourself in the photographs of architect Alexey Lyubimkin: 'City/Lights'. Like love letters to the cities he encounters, he unfolds the lines of trees and buildings as though they were simply blueprints of the original city design. His lens is a magnifying glass that scrutinises the things our naked eye cannot see, presenting the ever changing landscapes. Lyubimkin’s visions borrow from the old technique of tinting images but use a modern myriad of solero hues. This preoccupation with colour emphasises the importance of noticing beauty even to a rat race during rush hour. If we were to look up from the pavement for just one moment, we might spot a street lamp glancing off the gutter at a perfect angle, or see how branches transform the sky into a stained glass window.

Whether we love or hate where we live, we subconsciously give ourselves context by our perceived relationship to it. Working out how it all fits together, and then how to live within that space brings a sense of belonging. If we are not present to our surroundings at all then we will always feel at odds - and be homesick wherever we go. This artist gets us standing in place to marvel at those shapes around us, and find out our personal geometry. Rolling out the bridges and streets under our feet like carpets, Lyubimkin invites us in to become an important part of the picture, and to finally feel like we're home.

On view at Hay Hill Gallery, 35 Baker Street, W1, from 27 May until 21 June. Telephone 020 7935 5315 or online at www.hayhillgallery.com

E-mail: info@hayhillgallery.com