Between Rooms
Introduction
There are moments when a place feels familiar, but you can’t quite explain why.
Nothing obvious has changed. The streets are the same. The buildings are the same.
But something shifts.
The light sits differently. Reflections linger a little longer. You notice things you would normally pass without a second thought.
I started noticing these things before I had any reason to.
The photographs came first.
Only later, on my morning drives, I began listening to Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. I didn’t read anything about it beforehand. I just let the story unfold.
Somewhere along the way, the two began to overlap.
Part I — Entering the House
The Structure
Cities are built on repetition.
Lines, columns, windows, steps.
We move through them without really questioning what they are or why they’re there. They just make sense.
But if you slow down, even slightly, that certainty starts to fade.
The patterns are still there. The structure is still there.
But it doesn’t always explain itself.
Leica M11 Monochrom with 35mm Summilux ASPH. f1.4 ©Kieron Beard
The Disruption
Every so often, something interrupts the rhythm.
A reflection that doesn’t quite align. Layers that overlap in a way that’s hard to separate. Objects that seem to sit outside their usual context.
You start to look a little closer.
Not because you understand it, but because you don’t understand it.
Leica M11 Monochrom with 35mm Summilux ASPH. f1.4 ©Kieron Beard
Leica M11 Monochrom with 35mm Summilux ASPH. f1.4 ©Kieron Beard
The Realisation
At some point, the need to understand begins to fall away.
You stop trying to make sense of everything in front of you.
Instead, you accept it for what it is.
The repetition, ambiguity and the fragments.
They don’t need to be resolved.
Leica M11 Monochrom with 35mm Summilux ASPH. f1.4 ©Kieron Beard
Part II — Within the House
After finishing the book, I looked back at the photographs I’d already taken.
Then I went out again.
The Shift
I realised I hadn’t been looking for meaning to begin with.
Leica M11 Monochrom with 24mm Summilux ASPH. ©Kieron Beard
The Stillness
The spaces felt quieter and more complete.
Not because I understood them, but because I didn’t feel the need to.
Leica M11 Monochrom with 24mm Summilux ASPH. ©Kieron Beard
The Dissolution
Eventually, even the structure begins to soften.
The lines remain. The rhythm is still there.
But it no longer needs to describe anything.
Leica M11 Monochrom with 75mm APO-Summicron ASPH. ©Kieron Beard
Closing
These images aren’t about explaining a place.
They’re about moving through it.
About noticing what sits just beneath the surface. About recognising the moment before something becomes clear, and choosing not to push it any further.
Looking back, the photographs made more sense after the book. But they were already there.
Somewhere between rooms.
Don’t hesitate to come back to read more soon.