Nutation - 2008

Sea is mystery, a vast area of unexplored, uncharted territory, a place seemingly unaltered through time where the true nature of our planet is exposed’.

Whilst the landscape that surrounds us goes through a seemingly never-ending metamorphosis, the minimal vision of the sea sky horizon remains relatively unaltered. A view that could be shared with our primordial ancestors. This perhaps goes some way to explain our obsession with this calming vista. Its simple meditative beauty inspires reflection upon the concepts of time and space. 

Alongside these themes, the ‘Nutation’ series also examines the act of image making itself and the somewhat paradoxical relationship between real and pictorial space. The viewer is confronted by an image that at first glance seems profoundly dimensional whilst being simultaneously drawn to the flat photographic surface. The metallic sea retreats into 'the void’ as the textured pattern of the waves appear to be little more than brushstrokes upon the picture plane .

Luna - 2009 - 2015

‘That which is above is the same as that which is below.....Macrocosmos is the same as microcosmos. the universe is the same as human, human is the same as the cell, the cell is the same as... and so on, ad infinitum'.

The influence celestial bodies particularly the Moon have on our oceans is well established. In ‘Luna’ this relationship is explored. What is familiar becomes less recognisable. Frozen in a fraction of a second, unseen by the human eye, these explosive swirling abstract forms seem to echo the cosmos, rejecting their earthly origin. An image more reminiscent of scientific studies of a distant galaxies than a breaking wave or turbulent churning waterfall. Each taking its name from a known moon of the solar system. ‘Luna II’ further explores these themes but on calmer seas. Creating unseen, otherworldly landscapes, before gravity brings us back down to earth towards a more familiar perception of space and time, that of the photograph.

Luna II - 2021

Heaven Up Here - 2020

Degrees Of Stillness - 2018

The photograph by its very nature, involves abstraction, or the reduction of human vision to two-dimensions. The images from ‘Degrees of stillness’ explore the paradoxical relationship between real and pictorial space. Fluid shapes seem to solidify on the picture plane masking their true origin and depth. The images chosen by a number of aesthetic criteria rather than an ability to represent reality.

‘Degrees of stillness’ also examines the tangibility of time within the photograph. Whether observing the rapid torrent of a waterfall or the imperceptible movement of glacial ice. The photograph records stillness. A ‘fleeting permanence’. Frozen in a fraction of a second, unseen by the human eye.

‘My aim is to explore the tangibility of light, space and even time within the photograph’

In Dark Trees II - 2022

In Dark Trees II further develops the ideas and themes from an earlier series ‘In Dark Trees’ 2006. Here the cameras focus shifts from a wide expansive landscape to the more intimate space of the forest. The shifting lens aims to disorientate and overwhelm the viewer evoking the sensation of being deeply immersed in the forest. The contrast of dark trees against bright sky makes the sunlight almost flicker and to float to the surface as abstracted colour and form.

''What is meant by the immensity of the forest. For this immensity orginates in a body of impressions which, in reality, have little connection with geographical information. We do not have to be long in the woods to experience the always rather anxious impression of going deeper and deeper into this limitless world.'. Gaston Bachelard 'The Poetics of Space’.

Sea is Mystery - 2018 - 2020

‘Sea is Mystery’ further explores the tangibility of time and space within the photograph. Sculptural elements display apparent permanence against the motion of the sea. Of course both are in perpetual motion - rocks, groynes and wooden posts shift and erode over time. The sea hides and reveals it secrets, an unseen landscape, history juxtaposed against the seemingly unchanging image of the sea sky horizon. The sculptural forms seem to fluctuate, at times producing an image for depth, at times, against the flatness of the sea, they appear to drift towards the image surface, forming little more than abstract shapes on the picture plane.

Precession - 2000 - 2007

Negative Surface - 2005

In ‘Negative Surface’ the land, although central to the image appears as a dark detailless void. A challenge to the traditional aesthetics of landscape photography, this seemingly impenetrable yet infinitely deep shape displays an apparent permanence against the motion of water and sky. The viewer is left disoriented, with no reference for distance or depth, perhaps encouraged to contemplate the notion of 'the sublime’ or what has the power to compel and overwhelm us.