Walker Evans took inspiration from “French Cultural Heroes,” his goal being to authentically document the intricate details and delicacies of regular aspects of life. His 1955 portfolio, “Beauties of the Common Tool,” set out to explore the beauty in the regularity of tools, and the power to create or destroy that comes with them. The images he created were the opposite of idealised; showing each bump, dent, and scratch in the metal and the wear and tear from use – contrasting the conventional concept of creating something clean, beautiful, and easy on the eyes. Evans also toyed with the concept of a photograph becoming an object in itself, which was a key motivation for his style of work.

Darren Harvey-Regan, a more modern photographer, took great influence from Evans’ work, carefully manufacturing each element of the composition, lighting, exposure, and subjects within his images. Some of his pieces are a photo collage of more than one object, which could be considered to be a surrealistic photograph, however, Harvey-Regan considers it to be “phrasing” as opposed to anything else.

I aim to do a small-scale photoshoot at home with tools I have around my home, using the worn concrete flooring of my garage and brick driveway as a background to add more texture. I’m not sure what I’ll end up doing with these images, but I might be able to use them in a later project.