Peter Bonnell
My photographic practice is shaped by my experience of being autistic. I’m drawn to sensory intensities, patterns, and atmospheres that create a kind of visual stimming — images that feel like my brain is directly touching the world through light, form, and texture. In this photograph, ‘Estate of Magick’, the illuminated entrance to the municipal underpass becomes a focal point of perception: a bright, intricate surface carved out of the surrounding darkness. The white lines appear like seams, edges about to fold; the triangular built structures buttressing the entrance feel as if matter has folded over itself, a kind of metaphysical origami.
The underpass is a threshold — an interior forced into the exterior world. It feels both protective and uncanny, a pocket of heightened attention where the ordinary becomes strange. The light is inviting, yet the sharp angle of the entrance creates tension between visibility and obscurity, between what is held inside and what unfolds outward.
For me, this image explores the fold as an interior chamber: a moment where space bends, perception narrows, and the world reveals a hidden emotional charge. It invites contemplation, sensory focus, and a sense of quiet otherness.
