Chris Coekin's Chewing the Cud

Chris Coekin's new project mixes still life photography and staged portraiture to convey the working life of a British wire factory. The Altogether took Coekin the best part of five years to make in collaboration with John Pring & Son wire factory in Sandbach in Cheshire. His focus is the factory workforce ? portrayed in posed settings which reference the iconography of trade union banners ? and the landscape of the factory itself, which recently closed its doors after 177 years of production. In exploring the factory buildings, Coekin has examined their overlooked corners, often coming across discarded tools and metal objects that he then took back to his studio to photograph on a glistening background of industrial oil.