Christopher Robin Duncan is a multidisciplinary artist known for his work that spans various mediums: photography, textiles, and sound. His latest project, Poems, marks a return to photography after years of experimentation with other materials. Published by Deadbeat Club, this photo book is an experimental photo book that reflects Duncan’s continued fascination with natural forces, cycles, and the concept of time.
Christopher Robin Duncan’s Technique
Using a 35mm half-frame camera, Duncan captures the delicate and fleeting nature of time and space. Each shot from the camera produces two images in quick succession, with a subtle shift in perspective between them. This doubling of moments creates a unique visual rhythm: time and space are suspended, yet echoed, in a single action. Through these images, Duncan creates a series of suspended moments that explore the intervals within a heartbeat.
The photographs in Poems are meditations on nature, the seasons, and the elemental forces—light, air, water, wind, and earth—that shape the world. By focusing on these elements, Duncan invites viewers to reflect on the transience of life and the passage of time, evoking a sense of quiet contemplation. In this way, he invites us to observe how the fleeting moments of nature resonate with the broader cycles of life. Just like a volume of poetry in which rhymes and meters create meaning through repetition and echoes, Duncan’s images form a cohesive cycle. They intertwine into a visual poem, where each frame responds to another, creating a narrative that concerns both the spaces between moments and the moments themselves.
Adding a layer of uniqueness to Poems is its presentation: an unbound collection of loose pages that allows those who handle the book to directly interact with the work. The pages can be rearranged, shuffled, and reorganized, giving the reader the opportunity to alter the flow of images and create their own interpretations of time and rhythm. This innovative format emphasizes the fluidity of Duncan’s work and reinforces the idea that time and space are in constant flux.
