Over the last few months I’ve become aware of Cory Scholes’s work through the Leicester People’s Photographic Gallery and particularly its Facebook page. The photographs that he posts to the group are almost always obviously his without needing to read the caption, such is his distinctive style and personal ‘quality control’. He seems to have created quite a following locally, so much so that his influence is beginning to be seen in other people’s work within the group.

I’ve chatted with Cory previously about the desire for an artist, photographic or otherwise, to cultivate a look or style of their own; it’s what he calls a ‘unique visual signature’. Playing devil’s advocate, I suggested that the best photographers should be able to turn their hand to anything from holiday snaps of their kids to fine art. Cory stood his ground:

Cory’s show at the Leicester People’s Photographic Gallery features work from the last 12 months (other than a couple from his previous exhibition in 1997 (does that make it a ‘retrospective’?)) and was shot in Paris, Valencia and mostly Leicester. These Parisian accents are enough to make the whole set feel continental and even the view of Leicester’s inner ring-road is mistaken for the Rue de la Somethingorother when given Cory’s treatment. Throughout, the rigorous adherence to his personal aesthetic remains.

There are a lot of photographs here, allowing us to immerse ourselves into the work but requiring time to fully appreciate. A great deal of thought has been put into their presentation and sequencing and Cory admits there ‘a couple of crowd-pleasers’ that he has strategically placed through the set. These more playful images and some colour work allow us to take a breath and relax from the occasionally oppressive contrast and abstract.

The show is characterised by strong black and white contrasts, grain and blur, paired with unusual angles and cropping that breaks all sorts of compositional ‘rules’. It brings to mind Daido Moriyama, particularly his Farewell Photography set or a monochrome Uta Barth. Many images, particularly the colour photographs, are reminiscent of Saul Leiter‘s work although Cory tells me that he was a latecomer to Leiter and had developed his style independently.

The work, as with much contemporary art is less about technically accurate recreations of a scene and instead becomes the about the creativity and imagination of the artist and their ability to show us their interpretation of the scene. The viewer questions how the subject came to be in front of his lens and in many cases, why. These blurred, abstract, fragmentary views of the world appear to substantiate Cory’s photo-flâneur method: