My work has begun to take a narrative turn. In 2016-18 I was involved in a large multi partner, cross European project, CORNERS. Working as Curator of the CORNERS Live platform. Through this project I became deeply invested in working with a team of the developers creating a Longform, photo essay platform called Mural. I began to see the potential of this platform for use in my own work as illustrated in a recent piece I made that explores life in North Eastern coastal communities via the role of the Volunteer Life Brigade – The Volunteers.
This narrative turn has also manifest in film based works like ‘Between Wind and Water’, a piece I made as artist in residence in Sunderland with Siglion. This work made use of emerging camera drone technologies to explore the River Wear and enable former shipyard workers to tell their stories.
As a result of this interest, I have begun re-learning traditional photography and darkroom techniques, engaging with the material nature of film. I genuinely feel that I am at the beginning of a critical investigation into the tools and techniques used to capture still and moving image to find my own voice with this medium.
Recently I have been experimenting with respooling 35mm motion picture film into still film canisters. Skyglow is a result of that experiment. The shoot took place across a single day in a small coastal town in the North East of England. It is also the result of a personal challenge I have set myself this year. There is a simple quote/provocation I read by Photographer, “Photograph who you are.” Easy to say, hard to do. But I’m working on it.