Their interest lies less in the conventional documentary role of photography, depicting the real world, than in the construction of images which do not rely on anecdote or narrative detail. They challenge many entrenched ideas about the nature of photography, and acknowledge no boundaries between photography and the other fine arts. The works they create are imposing physical objects, which project photographic space into the real space of the gallery, setting up a confrontation or a continuity which involves the viewer in an active relationship with the work - similar co the experience of sculpture but with an added dimension, the photographic element.

All the work on show is recent, or produced specially for the exhibition. Herwig Kempinger, from Austria, presents large-scale colour works, or 'staged sculptures', exploring a range of pure abstract forms and volumes in the dematerialised 'space' of the photograph. Ton Zwerver (Holland) creates temporary and unstable structures in specific sites, which he then makes permanent through the photograph, which acts as an extension of the artwork. The artist directs the image through his choice of viewpoint, scale and lighting. Alongside examples of his recent work, Zwerver is showing new work produced in London for this exhibition.

James Casebere (USA) also works on the borders of sculpture and photography, constructing stylised tableaux of architectural or interior still life scenes, which are theatrically lit, photographed and presented as black and white prints or as lightboxes. He exploits the luminosity and freedom of scale afforded by photography, and the strange disquieting aura of artificiality which results, in his empty, nostalgic and ambiguous images of a personal, and an American, past.

The British artists Hannah Collins and Julia Wood were commissioned by the Gallery to produce new work for the exhibition. Hannah Collins's large black and white photographic installations depict figures in bare interior and exterior settings, establishing a strong physical presence and an active relationship with real space and the viewer. Julia Wood's work, too, inhabits real space: her installations involve photographic projection, and deal with visual illusion, perception and perspective, playing on the contrast between photographic, painterly and sculptural ways of picturing.

Although few of the exhibitors would call themselves purely or primarily photographers, Plane Space remains about the photographic medium itself, its problems, properties and possibilities.

Text written by Martin Caiger-Smith

View the catalogue published to coincide with the exhibition

For further information on this and past exhibitions, visit our Archive and Study Room.