“In the blue hour, Uri Gershuni wanders through the English village of Lacock, in the rural county of Wiltshire, which was home in the nineteenth century to the inventor of photography William Henry Fox Talbot, a countryside gentleman and pioneer of photography. […]
Gershuni’s trip to the village is not a first trip, nor indeed is it properly described as a trip. First, this is not Gershuni’s first visit to Lacock, but a return visit. He first visited the village three years ago in search of the origins of photography. This time Uri Gershuni finds a mode of movement in his non-movement, and this possibility, it turns out, opens up before him when he sits facing the computer screen, through which he may once again visit the village, at least virtually. […]
Google Maps: a single stroke of the keyboard produces a map of the village; drag Pegman over from the left-hand corner into the map, and you’re there, in Street View, on the road leading into the village, tailing a speeding white car; then the road clears, someone is running by the side of the road, there are tall trees, you pass the runner, you can look up at the tree tops[…]” Excerpts from Hagi Kenaan’s text, which accompanies the work.
The Blue Hour describes a journey in 255 images not only through Talbot’s village, but also into the depths and layers of photographic language. The images taken from Google Street View, turned black-and-white, are arranged neatly one image per page. This classical display creates a contrast to the photographies which exhibit all traces of their technical creation and contributes to the book’s ageless look-and-feel. - The Green Box
