Dimensions: image (each): 1220 x 1830 mm
Copyright: © Willie Doherty | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Editor: This photograph, titled "The Bridge" by Willie Doherty, presents a stark, grey scene. The wet surface emphasizes the materiality of the road. What can you tell me about Doherty’s intentions here? Curator: Consider the concrete, the steel: these materials dictate the reality of movement and connection. Bridges, in their construction and purpose, reveal how society manipulates the physical world to meet its needs. How does this image speak to the social and political context in which it was produced? Editor: It’s fascinating to think about the bridge as a product of social and political forces. Curator: Indeed, and how its image then re-enters the social sphere, shaping our understanding of infrastructure and its impact on our lives.
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The Bridge is a diptych consisting of two black and white photographs of the bottom deck of a two-tier road bridge. The work was produced in an edition of three plus one artist’s proof; Tate’s copy is second in the edition. Each image appears to have been taken from different ends of the bridge looking down the roadway. The bridge is empty of traffic in both images, although in the right panel two white circles in the distance denote the lights of an approaching or retreating vehicle. The photographs are taken from a low perspective so that the road tilts up towards the viewer. The space between the roadway and the top deck of the bridge appears uncomfortably compressed. Steel girders score the undercarriage of top deck. The dividing line in the middle of the road forms the midpoint of each picture plane; in the image on the left this line is particularly straight. The steep tapering of the bridge accentuates the photographs’ single-point perspective. The photographs were taken in daylight; the hazy outline of buildings and trees on the opposite side of the river can be seen to the left and right of the bridge in both images. It is an overcast day; rain has slicked the surface of the road, making it reflective to the pale light.
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