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.