The Thousands

Dante and Shakespeare got a long way by strip-mining poems about ancient Greek guys and gushing over classical theatre. Hell, high school literature is basically three years of cultural Sudoku where you get top marks for figuring out every box adds up to ‘some guy did it before the guy who you’re studying did’. Why recycle it again and again? Well, probably because the themes in classical literature are fundamental to the human condition and therefore capable of almost endless reinvention. Lloyd Hughes understands this.

Lloyd’s gone James Joyce and spent the last five years capturing a contemporary recreation of Homer’s Odyssey through his very expensive lens. A quick glance at his website betrays just how good Mr Hughes is with composition and a camera: each of the twenty-four books of Homer’s ancient poem have been distilled into a distinct image; and from what the previews show, Penelope, Odysseus and The Time It Takes To Reach The Beginning looks spectacular.