This week we are exploring the work of the Fiveleveninetynine Collective of London, the creators of the Broken Train and A Royal Wedding.

Jonny Cochrane is a London based photographer whose personal work examines people, places and experiences with an often peculiar nature. He’s busy looking at a little bit of everything, capturing the absurdity of modern civilization with a curled lip and a big grin. He finds inspiration in photography’s ability to elevate the mundane and uses atmosphere and mood to create narratives that are suggestive rather than explicit. Jonny graduated from the London College of Communication with distinction with an MA in Photojournalism & Documentary Photography. Besides working as an editorial and commercial photographer, he has exhibited in England, Ireland, and Finland.

I Want That: Our default condition is one of wanting. Often, we foolishly pander to our desire to have by attempting to get a little closer to the people, places and objects that we believe are symbolic of fulfillment, satisfaction, success and happiness. All characteristics of the life we endeavor to live.

Dreamy wanderings amongst the opulent surroundings of London’s most luxurious neighbourhoods begin with an uplifting pleasure in the allure of clean white stone against immaculate green privet, gold trim on black glass, impossibly glossy shop window displays and deliciously colourful confectionary. Rapidly the pleasure is tarnished by an awareness of the distance between us and them. We are reminded of the disdain we feel for our current situation as the lure of the beautiful luxuries fuels our hankering for a ‘better’ life. It is all so painfully out of reach. Abrupt self-awareness follows with a sense of shame brought on by the ease in which we have been so senselessly seduced.

Due to the democratic nature of all elements within the frame, the photographic image encourages us to interpret what we consider right before our eyes with autonomy. Rather than being senselessly, yet often subconsciously seduced by the opulence surrounding us, we have the opportunity to scrutinise, just as the camera does, every detail of the things that ordinarily
and routinely are the catalyst for that wanton desire to grab a hold of what we do not have. Perhaps we then discover something less familiar. These photographs encourage us to consider the absurdity of our methods and irrationality of our misguided appetite for that taste of happiness. The happiness we dream of obtaining when we are one day able to wrap ourselves up in the lavishly coloured, fine textured cloak of luxury.

I hope that in these photographs of beautiful things, there is another kind of beauty.