NICK RAYNSFORD at The Greenwich Gallery

There are pictures in Reflections 4 Labour, the gorgeous new exhibition of works by Nick Raynsford at the Greenwich Gallery, which are so luminous and so close to abstraction that it’s hard to tell if you’re looking at photographs or paintings – even when you know for a fact that they’re the former.

Take, for example, image No17, Greenwich Millennium Village Lake September 2018 (above). It’s shot from a balcony high above the water, the surface of which has been disturbed by an unseen duck so that the reflections of the surrounding earth-coloured buildings and a Raphaelesque blue sky are fragmented in gentle semi-circular ripples that melt every hard outline and fill the troughs of the wavelets with fabulous primary colours. It’s almost dreamlike in its insubstantial beauty - and it’s completely natural, untouched by digital manipulation.

The other 21 photographs in the show create the same sense of otherworldliness amid the concrete and glass of an urban landscape. Almost all of them were taken on Greenwich Peninsula over the past decade and all but a handful concentrate on the effect of light and movement on water. The result is a shimmering, scintillating show that adds a whole new dimension to a familiar vista – which is, of course, exactly what great photography should do. Please go – you’re in for a treat.

Raynsford was for many years Greenwich’s Labour MP before his retirement. The proceeds of this free exhibition, which runs till September 20, are going towards revamping the constituency party offices in Woolwich Road – hence its title.

More info about location and opening times at www.thegreenwichgallery.com

And if you want to read about one of Raynsford’s previous shows there, go to https://www.thegreenwichvisitorblog.com/reviews-full/nick-raynsford-at-the-greenwich-gallery