Gilbert McCarragher
photographer
architecture
Taigh Na Traigh, Scotland
Designed by Denizen Works, this family home on the Isle of Tiree on the west coast of Scotland sits high above the sea looking east towards the mainland over Mull. The agricultural relics which pepper the site drove the formal organisation of the house and in particular the ruins of the gabled byre.
Moritzkirche, Augsburg
Although I hadn’t visited Augsburg previously, on my first trip I felt I knew every inch of the church, having photographed an architectural model of it for John Pawson Architects some years earlier. Technically little had changed from that 1:25 scale model—though standing in front of the finished building, I came to realise I was no longer the giant... Now the building reached upward and beyond me, while the Saints, from their now elevated positions, gazed down at me and the world below.
On arriving at the church I was greeted by Father Helmut who, smiling, held a buttered salted pretzel for me in one hand and a set of keys to the church in the other. I set to work immediately photographing the space. At night, streetlight fell across the church windows, transforming the ceiling into a constellation of stars. As morning approached the streetlights switched off and the stars disappeared. The sun’s first beam of light pushed through the east window, cutting the darkness and illuminating the font. The water within took up the light and glistened.
Christopher Kane
Mount Street, London—home to Scottish fashion designer Christopher Kane’s first store. Formerly a day spa and beauticians, this cavernous corner building in Mayfair was, when I visited a year before it opened, a maze of tiny rooms and twisting corridors from which the light gradually withdrew. Remnants exfoliated from the building’s past life surrounded me.
A year later, the store had been completely transformed. Natural light, now nurtured, illuminated the store, allowing the space to breathe. A glowing totem light piece, hung full height between the two floors of the store, was made even more impressive by the staircase that spiralled around it.
St Paul’s Perspectives
Perspectives was conceived as a site-specific installation for the Geometric Staircase of St Paul’s Cathedral, as a part of the 2011 London Design Festival. A collaboration between the John Pawson office and Swarovski, I documented Perspectives from its creation to its installation in St Paul’s in a series of photographs and films.
Alexander McQueen
As a part of the run up to the opening of McQueen’s flagship store on Old Bond Street I was asked to document the creation of the plaster panels designed for the store’s walls—panels that have since become a signature element of every McQueen store throughout the world. In a workshop in East London I patiently watched as the panels took form, evolving from a series of initial concept sketches, then bright pink latex moulds, until the moment of the great reveal when the moulds were peeled back to expose the artistry encased inside.
My work with Alexander McQueen spans several years and includes photography of the flagship store on Old Bond Street, the men’s tailoring division on Savile Row, the McQ Store on Dover Street and the ongoing ArtBox projects curated by Sadie Coles HQ at McQueen Savile Row.
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