‘Look beneath your feet.’ ~ Zen Buddhist proverb

I became interested in the idea of using photography to create fragments of a story initiated by a connection I feel, in particular, to woodland areas of Dartmoor’s Teign Valley where I grew up. The woods are also depicted as liminal spaces in fairy tales opening the way for personal transformation, often as a place of danger or mystery as the character leaves the familiarity and safety of civilisation, which I find intriguing. I aim for balanced and contrasting images drawn to the Japanese concept of ‘ma’ (negative space) to explore absence among form as an integral part of the subject. I take a notepad with the intention of complementing each picture of various scenes, sketched through the written word while taking long walks laying the basis for a poem or haiku, which sort of mirrors the technique of shooting an image in RAW before post-processing.

River Teign (Dunsford Nature Reserve)

dead leaves
pass by
rock

Bridford Wood

shadows cast over
broken twigs on woodland path –
the afternoon sun

I am also exploring this idea through silent, monochromatic films.