Face Values

David Jones is a photographer and theatre director. His first solo exhibition of photographic works at the Menier Gallery investigates the sometimes uncomfortable relationship between the viewer and the image.

These are not portraits. They are documents which often disconcert; anti-portraits which offer a negative reference to formal portraiture but which are nevertheless the result of close observation, framing and illumination. Some have their genesis in theatre - capturing in the photographic studio an image created in live performance, others are candid moments.

The majority of this work isolates the unforgiving gaze to invite an imagined narrative response. What is she feeling? What did he just say? What are they about to do? What does that look signify? It is for the viewer to ascribe value.