Portrait of a familiar place

A project focused on a canal stretch near to my home. Landscape and portrait based study.

Latency

Latency; Defined as “the state of existing but not yet developed”

The word latent is often talked about in film photography as the image contained on the undeveloped film. I want to take it a step further. Latent for me is a scene waiting to be discovered, it has its own “Latency”.

The series seeks to explore tension and mood using composition, situation and light.

Land Marks

This title explores areas that are left behind when society moves on. Shifts in how people live are sometimes gradual but after a time, the old may be discarded and left. Often on reflection there is a feeling something important was there, and that it should be marked.

The potteries industry is inextricably connected to an area that shaped many families and communities in and around Stoke on Trent. It was bound to society over many years and families over many generations. The founding areas and buildings are in various states of re use, re purpose, left as a monument or simply left in disrepair.

This series places these industrial remains into the context of today's landscape. It sits in the pasts of many families around the area but often no longer as a means of work or identity. 

The kilns and industrial buildings often sit awkwardly in these towns as derelict sites and although some of the remaining sites are listed as architecturally important, they await attention, the land left await redevelopment and represent a past that has been left behind remaining as land marks..

Park Hill

Famous listed housing estate on the east side of Sheffield built in the late 1950’s. Opened to residents in 1961. This is how it was in late 2017.

Anatomy of Housing Estates

With this series I am hoping to frame the fringes or elements of these places that we are all accustomed to seeing but don't pay much attention to; maybe the un-cared for and under appreciated or elements and relationships that go largely unnoticed. The aim is to try and find some common recognition and harmony in their forms and features.

Everyday Abstractions

The decision of where to make a photograph or what to photograph is complex. I find it fascinating. The process of searching for possibilities or harmony can be addictive.

I am looking for balance or relationships via the camera and trying to learn to work with what I see. When you find the right combinations or places and create order via the viewfinder it can feel fleeting but precious.. I think of the result as an abstraction. 

Nightscapes

An ongoing exercise of attempting to capture mood and atmosphere that the small hours offer. A way of viewing late light and space without the distraction of sound..

B sides, C sides

Visits to the seaside are so linked to photography, holiday, family memories, sunset views or people relaxing and getting away from it. I am showing the empty, off season views that we don’t normally see..