Martin Cox

The images in Cox's work examine a landscape of leisure, from glitz and shine, to rust and scrap, they evoke the marine expression of contemporary commercial culture. Cox has photographed brand new cruise ships on their debuts to rust streaked scrap yards to witness their ultimate demise and recycling. Cox strikes a mythic nerve with this subject matter. Vessels have shaped world history and are now breaking down our world's barriers at an increasingly faster pace. He deftly shows that ships transport not only passengers and cargo, they convey fantasy and luxury, and vestiges of class. Cox's lens reveals that the most contemporary cruise liners are outfitted as art deco palaces from Hollywood's golden age; the implications grow more eloquent as they reach the end of their life cycles, to be sold for scrap and dismantled. Visit the artist's website at www.martincox.com