Urban Rhythm

Travel photographer, writer and winner of last year's Photographic Competition Debbie Smyth, is sharing some of her recent work in the Upper Gallery. 

Debbie’s work captures her view of the culture, language and history of the places and people she visits, with a particular focus on urban settings. That said, her love for horses usually makes an appearance too.

Her ongoing project, Rumble - Rush - Repeat, explores the Japanese concept of 'ma,' the appreciation of even the tiniest moments of silence or space. Images captured over several visits to Japan since 2018 are intertwined with haiku, a form of Japanese poetry where the rhythm of sound and silence is key to its form. 

Debbie invites us to experience the freedom of 'ma' through this intriguing combination of her images and her words.

Next, she takes us along Karl-Marx-Allee, once named Stalinallee, in Berlin. Seriously damaged in World War 2, the street then experienced a rapid and enthusiastic reconstruction as a major street of East Berlin, acting as an architectural and military showcase to the West.

Debbie takes us on a slow wander which reveals much about the peaks and troughs of life in this part of the GDR. Her ongoing exploration of the abandoned Soviet sanatoria in Georgia is also on show. The former glory can be seen in the ruins, alongside evidence of use as emergency accommodation for refugees from the Abkhaz-Georgian war.