The Shape of 2023.
Finding a new way of being after a long-term illness, a pandemic and an and to a hard-won career has been a process of unfolding since early 2019. Starting a Master’s degree in photography at the University of the West of England in September 2021 was more of a pivotal change than I could have anticipated.
Making long stories short, the course in its entirety served as a purge; of old habit and attitudes, of people-pleasing and self-limiting behaviour and of ‘never fully committing’ to the fullest degree of conviction in my photographic work.
Although the project I created as part of the course bore no relation to the direction of my future work, it allowed me to empty out limitations and uncertainties, while experimenting widely and accepting imperfect results while remaining in motion. I had been hesitant to pursue the photographing of rocks and trees; I didn’t think people would like photographs of rocks and trees. The joy of this period of transformation is that I’m no longer concerned with the commercial potential or likeability of photos of rocks and trees - I make them because I love them. This is enough.
In 2023, I will focus on two separate projects. O Garreg [O Carreg] is a study of the formal qualities of geologies and monoliths in West Wales. Growing up, I spent every summer in Pembrokeshire, visiting my grandparents. I return often, and feel their absence. The uncompromising Cambrian and Caradocian coastlines of the region fuelled my early interest in geology and the concept of deep time, of the billions of pre-anthropic years in which entire epochs grew and collapsed. O Garreg is an ongoing body of work, a process of revisiting the rocks; observing the bones of old worlds that formed the mythologies of the new.
The central body of work in development in 2023 is a wide-ranging study of the fragments of temperate rainforest scattered across the western seaboard of Great Britain.
I began this line of enquiry in 2009, when visiting Nara, Japan. I noticed epiphytic grasses growing on trees in the ancient city, and took note of the ‘primeval forests’ [原生林・genseirin] in the area. Following similar leads back in the UK, I was surprised to find that much of the western flank of the country was climatologically primed for similar environments. I began exploring these fragments of primeval woodland, starting with Wistman’s Wood in Dartmoor.
Recently, author Guy Shrubsole published a book titled ‘The Lost Rainforests of Britain.’ It’s a culmination of an ongoing project to map and better define Britain’s dwindling fragments of temperate rainforest. It has also been a valuable resource for locating areas of potential temperate rainforest beyond the now-famous Wistman’s Wood, which is lately suffering from the pressures of over-tourism.
The project is in the early stages of development; currently I am locating areas for photographing and searching out charities and organisations who are working to facilitate the protection and restoration of temperate rainforest areas.
My final exploit in 2023 will be a return to Japan in October. It will have been nearly five years since I left, after living and working there for five years. It’s taken me a long time to decompress from the challenges I faced while there, but I am looking forward to finally enjoying the country at a calmer pace after so many years of working six day weeks and ten hour days.
I’m taking part in a month-long artist residency program at Studio Kura (run by the Arts Itoya foundation) in Itoshima, near Fukuoka. I’ve only visited Kyushu once before and am glad for the chance to know the region better. The focus of my visit will be a continuation of 2023’s forest-based themes. Japan, although highly forested, has only fragments of its primeval forests remaining. I plan to spend more time learning about ‘forest as a place’ and its role in the development of Japanese culture and sensibility. Either side of the residency, I’ll spend a couple of weeks re-visiting my favourite people and parts of Kansai, my old ‘home region.’
After a number of difficult years (for myself; surely, for everyone) I am grateful to begin 2023 with a sense of purpose.
Anyone interested in knowing more about/collaborating on forest-based works and research should feel free to contact me.
