Vestiges, 2025

Does a photograph depict the event itself or does it merely illustrate and interpret an event, a place, a shadow of time? This question has always been at the centre of my practice, and is both a source of frustration and quiet contemplation. There is a long tradition within photography in the capturing the tangibility of objects, places and surfaces in various states of decay, the aesthetic quality of which cannot be quantified. Western painting has brought the aesthetics of decay and destruction into the mainstream consciousness, which we observe from a distanced perspective, forcing us to contemplate our own mortality; whilst safe from this perceived threat. Photography functions with a peculiar duality in that it enhances imagination in one context and constraints it another. This chronological series was made along the shoreline of Jersey, my home island; depicting the decaying surfaces of a historic sea wall built by the occupying German army in WW2. There are traces, marks and signs that permeate the textured surfaces of these now ancient monuments, which represent a fading collective memory of a place haunted by the past.