Photography as such

Upon looking at Philip Pocock's creations, one experiences hitherto unknown visible mysteries, that stir the eye and the mind. When in 1924 the Leica was invented, it redeemed photography from the rigidity of the big view-camera and its fetter, the tripod, which allowed only horizontals and verticals, since 1839. Like an extension of our unlimited glances the small camera gave a rendering of the world from all angles. Philip Pocock has gone one step further. He untied photography from its initial mission to produce a mirror of recognizable objects. He produces photography as such, photography pure, opening it to new vistas in a brilliant interplay of forms and colors, each specimen granting hallucinatory journeys into the new. His imaginations prove the inexhaustible richness of mastered craft and conjured phantasy.

L. Fritz Gruber, Cologne, 11 December 1992.

(Prof. Dr. Gruber sadly passed away in 2005. He was 97. He is survived by his wife and partner Renate and daughter Bettina. His collection has for decades been housed at Museum Ludwig Cologne. Having introduced Man Ray to Germany a half century ago, Fritz was an inspiration to generations of photographers of all kinds.)