Isolarions: recovering the senses


   Isolarions: A type of map developed in the 15th century. It 
describes specific areas in detail, but does not provide
 a clarifying overview of how these places are related 
to one another.  

(Macfarlane, The Wild Places)




         
         



‘I promise nothing complete; because any human thing supposed to be complete, must for that very reason infallibly be faulty.’ 
  Herman Melville, Moby Dick


So I strive not for completion but simply for a series of observations, inconsequential in themselves, which together begin to pose questions. I am not really interested in finding the answers (if indeed there are any) but in the process of exploration. The books are more a taking in of breath, a pause before I continue.
       I am fascinated by the impression of things, specifically the impression of light. I have found that what really intrigues me about photography is the residue of light left on the negative; I think this is why using analogue photography is so important to me and why digital cameras hold no appeal. They are two different mediums, commanding a different working tempo or pace. For me, digital images tend towards the subject, the thing, but analogue requires a slowing down, which allows time to take in not only what falls within the viewfinder, but also everything outside.

‘We find beauty not in the thing itself but in the patterns of shadows, the light and the darkness, that one thing against another creates.’
Tanazaki, In Praise of Shadows

      The books are fundamentally about place, about being in a place and becoming acutely aware of the everyday surroundings in which I find myself, a focusing of attention. They map a personal disjointed journey through a number of seemingly unrelated locations, linking each place with colour, shape, texture and memory.