"The good photograph is the well composed one. Yet this is true only in so far as we think of photographic images imitating painted ones."
John Berger, Understanding a Photograph (Selected Essays)

Biography: Sean Bulson MA, London based photographer and sociologist. Graduating with a Masters degree in Social & Political Thought from Warwick University, Sean learnt from assisting professional photographers and from taking a series of photographic courses - all passed with distinction - at Kensington & Chelsea College. His work was exhibited at Galerie Huit's Open Salon in Arles (France) 2011. He has also exhibited at several college photography shows and other group exhibitions (including two shows at the Bigger Picture Gallery, London). His work has been widely published, including the British Journal of Photography's prestigious Endframe portfolio and the current journal of the RPS.

Statement: Sean uses varying degrees of abstraction to achieve a strong formal and graphic image. Responding to modernist photographers (Bernd & Hilla Becher, Lewis Baltz, Andreas Gursky) and artists (Piet Mondrian, Dan Flavin) his photography combines sociological references, with a coherent and often idealistic approach.

"I'm no more a classical documentarist than landscape or architectural photographer, but I'm fascinated by the structures that influence, and to varying degrees shape, human behaviour. Those that reject the importance of social and economic factors tend to emphasise the 'sovereignty of the individual': 'man' as a free agent, responsible for his own actions. This position ignores important determinants however, such as law, education, economy; and more transparently, the physical infrastructure that governs our movement, and the nature of the public spaces within which much interaction takes place."

The structuralist method that Sean adopts takes reciprocal relations as its object of investigation, rather than particular factors considered in isolation. His photography depicts (or at least reflects) these structures that, while they may not determine human behaviour, often provide the contect within which it takes place.

To focus only on the aesthetic can lead to an unreflective perspective (and a form of escapism via an idealised image). While there's a place for this, there's also a place for a more critical approach, connecting to philosophical ideas that add insight and understanding, taking you beyond aesthetics, and into the realm of meaning.

[Note. This statement is extracted from a RPS Journal article.]