It is the degree to which a pose is unstable that gives the clearest indication of its movement, its potential energy, the energy held by a body. In a still image one projects the future movement of the body according to the success of its depiction, and can quantify the speed, angle, weight and possible result of a fall or the precariousness of an imbalance, a captured instance can relay a wealth of information. We never perceive a body as it is depicted by Muybridge, its swiftness, or countering that, its stillness, is made apparent. David Hockeys' Picture Emphasising Stillness makes an explicit reference to the limitations and possibilities of painting in this respect, with the leopard caught mid-pounce before an oblivious couple, the viewer is assured by the text which sits between them, "They are perfectly safe, this is a still". Is there similarity to Muybridge, in the role of the vacant space between the figure and ground, which gives the sense of a falling body? The vacancy in both images becomes the protagonist. It is the dimension of the absence that enlivens these images, and affords them the energy they contain.
The photograph captures the changing state of the Old Fire Station, it suspends and gives weight to the space between the two public faces of the building, the disused and the redeveloped, the space between these two states is veiled, the photograph is offering a glimpse at an unveiling, capturing the swiftness of a moment imbued with an energy inherent to a body in movement.
