Gideon Vass

Gideon Vass is a photographer based in Liverpool. He started making photographs in 2009, and has since self-published six photo books; including That year by the river, £100 Idea: The Households of Trafford and Gideon Vass, Blind, Pale Wall, RW, and his current book, Estate.

Vass studied BA Photography at Manchester School of Art (2012 - 2015).

‘A swift piece of reasoning is not necessarily better than a long-pondered one. Far from it. But it communicates something special that is derived simply from its very swiftness.’

Italo Calvino

Estate

Northeast London

July 2021 - January 2023

222 windows face the estate’s central courtyard. I occupy one of these windows. My window is on the ground floor of block B, near the corner.

Six blocks surround the courtyard. Around the perimeter of the courtyard is a path. Within the courtyard is a lawn, a playground, an allotment, a garden, a mound.

People pass through. Children play. Pigeons circulate. The sun scorches the grass. A dog chases a stick. The flowers bloom. A cold wind blows.

The courtyard is an intersection, a community, a space. Seasons change, and time passes through.

The photographs in this work were made from my bedroom window and from within the courtyard over 18 months.

Book: 3 chapters, 108 pages, 70 photographs