Laura Jane Coulson Pleasing, 2019

Laura Coulson

Pleasing 

Private View: 28 March | 6:30-9:00pm 

RSVP: info@webber.gallery

Exhibition: 28 March - 28 April 2019 

Laura Jane Coulson’s lens has long been drawn to unexpected details. 

Travelling the world for work, the Devon-born, London-based photographer captures serendipitous scenes that occur just for her. 

She is compelled to take offhand snapshots: of strangers in the street – a row of carefully coiffed heads from behind, for example, or backs pressed unthinkingly against steamy beauty salon windows; of inanimate objects left discarded, then rediscovered; or of strange patterns of light and surface that might otherwise have gone entirely unseen. 

Faced with a sight like this, she photographs it intuitively. “Usually for no reason other than that I found it pleasing,”. 

There is an innate sensitivity to Coulson’s curiosities; they are almost always anonymous, caught in transit. Some small detail is seized on, while its host remains faceless – from the vivid contents of a discarded plastic bag to the glimmer of sunlight reflected on water. The result is a series of tender observations compiled over the course of five years – a timestamp in the evolution of her ideas. 

Now, a collection of these images comprises the aptly named Pleasing, a photo-book by Coulson, and the latest edition in Paris-based publisher Libraryman’s ongoing Seasons Series.