Perou/hyde: Tunnel Vision

Nocturnal scenes of Britain’s forbidding, uniquely desolate underpassesYou can almost hear the ominous hum of the broken strip lighting, the knot of fear in the gut. These unloved spaces are notoriously menacing, graffiti-ridden, inconvenient. Yet through the lens of celebrated British portrait photographer Perou (born 1970) and the accompanying essay by Karl Hyde (of dance music duo Underworld), their architecture is also elevated to something magnificent, at times even ethereal. Shot at night, Perou’s images also express the original utopian vision of the New Town planners of the 1960s and ’70s.The idea for Tunnel Vision was sparked between friends Perou and Hyde when Perou shot the album cover for Hyde’s debut solo album, Edgeland, featuring an underpass at night. Perou has now shot over 200 underpasses across England. The photographs are accompanied by Perou and Hyde’s text, and also by text of found graffiti. Each plate is augmented with the latitude and longitude details of the location of the underpass.