David Austen - London Dreams

London Dreams

I was returning to the studio after eight weeks away

It felt strange, like entering a dark tomb

The shutters opened and let the light in

Who is this person who made these odd works, these sheaves of drawings and watercolours

And read all these piles of books

I was nervous of making anything or continuing the half-finished works on the 
walls that now seemed frozen in time, as if by another’s hand.

I asked my friend, the photographer Ben Stockley who’s studio is just above
 mine in Bow, if he would like to make a little film. 

Ben likes photographing artist's studios and has often done so in mine. He 
especially loves the fall and play of light, the jetsam and flotsam of images 
and objects that accumulate in an artist’s studio.

We felt it would be interesting to make a fictional story, recreating a return to 
the studio but almost as if in a dream or half remembered thing.

In a way I became an actor, though the role is myself, in a just passed 
moment in time.
- David Austen

A film by Ben Stockley / Director of Photography Tom Turley / Music Composed by Sylvain Chauveau Performed by Melaine Dalibert / Editor Angus Berryman Colourist Dave Ludlam JamVFX