Looking Back: Pictures from the Attic, will be on display at Hamiltons Gallery, London, from 16 to 18 September.
Mead captured the striking black and white photographs of New England
landscapes, trees and domestic interiors while studying at Harvard in the mid-ˇ
1970s. They employ a distinctive circular perspective inspired by his one-ˇtime
Professor Emmet Gowin. The photographs were taken using a traditional large
format 8x10 film camera, which he fitted with a lens from a smaller 4x5 camera.
The result is that the image recreates what the eye sees, making the viewer a
true observer.
When he rediscovered the 8x10 negatives in his attic in 2008, Mead was
immediately taken back 30 years to a period when he thought his career might
be in photography rather than banking. As a student, however, he did not have
the time or resources to take the work to its final level. He reluctantly catalogued
the negatives and stored them for another time and place.
Mead always carried a camera with him during his financial career and finding
the images encouraged him to take up photography as a serious vocation once
again. In the new 30"x25" prints he has employed the latest digital darkroom
technology. This, in conjunction with the quality and detail of the large format
negatives, creates a range of tone, scale and mood which would have been
virtually impossible in the days the images were made.
All profits raised from the exhibition will be donated to help create a new Gene and Cell Therapy Laboratory, providing a vital diagnostic and treatment service for children requiring a life-ˇsaving Bone Marrow Transplant at Great Ormond Street Hospital. Mead's son, now 18, was treated for and cured of life threatening leukaemia as a baby at the hospital. Since then Mead has been a deeply involved supporter of the hospital and served as an associate non-ˇexecutive director from 2004-09.
Scott Mead, Evening Light, 1975 © Scott Mead