wading through black peat
2018-2023
Set across Devon, wading through black peat is a series of fragmented colour and black & white images that explores a sentiment –
‘Being a stranger in an intimate space’
Specifically, the idea of returning to a landscape that you have a particular bond with, but are no longer rooted in –
‘A familiar space, rediscovered’
Each image is taken on square medium format film during long and immersive walks throughout a landscape, a process chosen for its ability to slow down and highlight one’s relationship with the surrounding geography. Slowly creating a mental map of each associated memory and thought to a specific location.
Building on a dream-like, broken narrative that reflects on childhood attachments to an ancient landscape, where every tree / stone / tor and footstep reveal a sense of place – which is then rediscovered through photography and the act of writing poetry, attempting to record these micro-moments whilst re-walking familiar terrain.
waking to the dawn chorus in the early hours,
delicate morning light spilling through the single pane windows,
sitting upright and stepping out,
watching the mist rise before setting off,
beginning on neatly paved road,
amber streetlights around every corner,
highlighting the exit of the town,
road signs gliding past with mundane names,
slowly creeping across the motorway,
weighed down by lanes of tourists,
towards the red soil and moorland,
rolling over roughly tarmacked roads,
landscape shifting from grey blocks,
into divided green hedgerows,
cutting up fields for livestock,
ferns entangled within the ancient,
dry-stone wall encompassing the narrow lanes,
allowing passage for the occasional vehicle,
to slither through each blind corner,
distant light in sight,
home drawing near through the closing twilight hour,
arm resting on the door sill,
quiet hum of the engine,
yellow headlights picking up each cat eye in a line,
illuminating the grass,
that occupies the cracks within the middle of the road,
inky darkness falls on the hidden landscape,
revealing the sounds of owls and dense ferns swaying,
until the quiet becomes total,
slowly a new dawn chorus breaks,
songs of skylarks and starlings,
wind blustering the feathers,
on weather hardened buzzards,
wading through black peat,
all too familiar,
even after this amount of time.