About
Alan is a photographer based in London.
He recently completed the MA Photojournalism & Documentary Photography postgraduate degree at London College of Communication, University of the Arts London.
Alan's work is exhibited regularly in group exhibitions and has been published in FLIP, the magazine of London Independent Photography. It is also in private collections.
Artist Statement
Alan Larsen is a photographer interested in the representation of place, and how the built environment embodies and reflects the human environment.
His work comprises straightforward topographical images, through which he reveals the hidden landscapes that lie beneath the surface, exposing the relationship of place to time, memory, identity, and the histories that contributed to its creation, and continue to pervade it. His work is mostly presented in series, allowing layers of meaning to emerge by creating a dialogue between the individual images and within the work as a whole. In addition he uses text to create a tension about what is visible on the surface, questioning what might lie beneath.
Walking is often part of his practice, combined with imposing a constraint such as photographing at predetermined fixed intervals of distance or time. This process encourages documenting – mapping – a more objective reality, rather than making subjective choices that prioritise aesthetic outcome. In this way patterns can be revealed that might otherwise go unnoticed.
Combined with this, Alan is also interested in how the landscape in both urban and natural contexts can express complex emotions and feelings, reflecting a sense of self and connecting internal and external worlds.
By documenting banal and overlooked aspects of the built environment, Alan reveals and revels in the interconnected multi-layered narratives that are hidden in plain sight in the urban landscape.
He recently completed the MA Photojournalism & Documentary Photography postgraduate degree at London College of Communication, University of the Arts London.
Alan's work is exhibited regularly in group exhibitions and has been published in FLIP, the magazine of London Independent Photography. It is also in private collections.
Artist Statement
Alan Larsen is a photographer interested in the representation of place, and how the built environment embodies and reflects the human environment.
His work comprises straightforward topographical images, through which he reveals the hidden landscapes that lie beneath the surface, exposing the relationship of place to time, memory, identity, and the histories that contributed to its creation, and continue to pervade it. His work is mostly presented in series, allowing layers of meaning to emerge by creating a dialogue between the individual images and within the work as a whole. In addition he uses text to create a tension about what is visible on the surface, questioning what might lie beneath.
Walking is often part of his practice, combined with imposing a constraint such as photographing at predetermined fixed intervals of distance or time. This process encourages documenting – mapping – a more objective reality, rather than making subjective choices that prioritise aesthetic outcome. In this way patterns can be revealed that might otherwise go unnoticed.
Combined with this, Alan is also interested in how the landscape in both urban and natural contexts can express complex emotions and feelings, reflecting a sense of self and connecting internal and external worlds.
By documenting banal and overlooked aspects of the built environment, Alan reveals and revels in the interconnected multi-layered narratives that are hidden in plain sight in the urban landscape.