Overall I think this is a really strong series – a collection of cohesive, aesthetically enticing and technically impressive shots which have been brought together in a convincing narrative, exploring interesting, ultimately quite serious ideas in a witty, engaging way. It’s the type of work that continues to linger in your mind long after you’ve seen it. I love the playfulness of the approach, knowingly referencing visual culture tropes – the leaping tourist, the instagramtastic couple brandishing selfie sticks, Neil Armstrong’s famous footprints on the moon – confidently placing them in a visual framework that feels very much your own style.

While your images should speak for themselves, an artist statement is something that many photographers overlook, or hastily pen before sending their finished work out for review. I’d encourage all photographers to put the same care into crafting a statement as their photographic work. The statement is well written, and weaves together some really compelling ideas about exploration, tourism, self-perception… It might be good to revisit the first two paragraphs which talk about Columbus – I would be a bit wary of saying that Columbus “discovered” America – after all it was already there, and home to its indigenous populations, before he arrived. It was only a discovery for the Europeans. The word could at least be put into quotation marks to acknowledge this?

I think it could help to revisit the statement with someone who is a native English speaker, ideally a professional writer or editor, as there are a couple of typos. “Touristic destination” I think should be “tourist destination” and “in every spots I stopped” should be “spot”. The two main ideas seem to be the idea of tourist imagery and the idea of Mars tourism – maybe these could be brought together earlier on in your statement. Instead of starting with the exploration, it might be punchier to start with something about how we behave as tourists and then link this to Mars? Or to incorporate some kind of fictional text with it? A postcard (or social media post) sent from Mars? Just a thought… I’m also interested to know where you shot it. Is it Utah? But maybe this is information that could be saved for an interview rather than putting it here…

Moving on to subject matter and viewpoint. The first other series it made me think of was Christina De Middel’s Afronauts, which may be familiar, not just because of the space theme but also the desaturated colours and the blending of fictional and documentary elements. There’s another recent project that has a similar theme by Cassandra Klos about a Mars simulation site in Hawaii that might be interesting to take a look at. This series may have been made a few years back but it still feels very timely. There’s a lot of discussion about space travel at the moment. Not just in photography but also in literature, like this novel for example. Perhaps this is because of the recent anniversary of the Apollo Moon Landings on 20 July, either way it’s a hot topic, and one that’s only going to get more so as space tourism and colonisation become a reality so there’s certainly potential to continue building on this work or present it in different formats if that’s something you are interested in…

Technique is of course fundamental, and a cover-all term for a range of elements – composition, framing and focal point, use of lines, perspective, layers and negative space, exposure, sharpness, depth of field and so on and so on. There are no hard and fast rules for what’s right or wrong, but that doesn’t negate the need for a general level of proficiency. The best photographers know which rules they’re breaking.

The technique on display here is sophisticated. Although the composition and poses often deliberately mimic the cliches of tourist snapshots, they’re embedded in some stunning landscapes, that show a refined use of light and shadow and a range of tones. I’m particularly drawn to the images which seem to combine a distinctive wry humour, with breathtaking backdrops. There’s a real command of the camera, but also a personal style that shines through. I feel like a particular photographer took these shots, rather than any old photographer. Post-processing can be divisive, but I think it’s elegant and essential here, giving the shots that red-pinky hue needed to appear like Mars, along with a sleek, stylised, alien feel that fits the topic (much sleeker than the astronauts Instagram-style selfies would be).

And finally on to image sequencing and editing, which although I’m discussing last, is something often overlooked but fundamental to the ways in which work will be interpreted by the viewer. By carefully considering the order in which your images are viewed you guide the viewer on a narrative journey – perhaps a chronological one, or one that ebbs and flows, or one that’s jarring. It’s a subtle, but powerful tool for influencing how a viewer interacts with your work. I think the series has a nice flow. The series starts and ends on powerful shots, and in between these move from one image to the next with consideration for the visual relationship between them. If a tighter edit was required, you could be ruthless in ditching any images that seem even slightly repetitive. I also felt that there could be even greater variety. The two figures aren’t ever shown close up. Why not? Are there other interesting tourist poses that are missing – for example one figure in the frame taking a shot of the other one? Group shots? Or one of those selfies of a pair of legs?

Thanks so much for sharing your work with me. It’s been so rewarding to spend time focusing on these images. What’s the next destination for the work? Is it something that might be returned to in future? It would be useful to know as a reviewer. In terms of next steps, maybe it would be worth thinking about how the series could be developed further or repackaged as we learn about new advances in space tourism… Either way, I wish you the best of luck with it all!