About
I am an archivist, artist, filmmaker and historian and live and work in the Lake District in Cumbria. The landscape and its many concealed narratives have fundamentally shaped my processes both at home and abroad.
Places and landscapes have meanings that are both literal and hidden and the surface attraction of an appearance is in permanent conflict with a deeper atmospheric presence. A hidden and secret reality lies beyond the look of places. No matter what the encounter is, be it a large scale location or an intimate part of nature, it’s identification can often only be truly glimpsed when filtered through the mechanics of art.
László Moholy-Nagy wrote
“The photogram, or camera-less record of forms produced by light, which embodies the unique nature of the photographic process, is the real key to photography”.
So too has this form of photography been instrumental in my discovery of the complexities of both natural and man-made objects. By projecting light through these, I consider too the transitory light that passes through the land or the interior of a structure. The fragility of glass onto which the image is often imprinted hints at the vulnerability of the environment; its’ reflective qualities both enlarge and signify deeper connotations.
Magnifying the image in both film and photography allows me to reveal qualities and meanings that may otherwise have remained concealed. The transitory, fleeting nature of screen emulsion has evolved in my increasing engagement with the speed of digital light but this has also allowed me to accentuate the passing of time by reducing it’s pace.
The chemical qualities of development, the extensive variety of different media and the possibilities of digitally enhancing film enable me the possibility of experimenting and embodying the layers and depths of meaning evident within both a rural and an urban psychogeography.