Sketchbook

So, welcome to my space on the Documenting Britain site – and first off I must say how delighted I am to be part of this group of inspiring individuals who are producing amazing work across the British Isles. Very exciting to be involved.

I intend to use this space to document the progress of my Documenting Britain project, which for now I am calling Northlands. For the past few years I have spent a lot of time exploring and documenting urban spaces across Scotland (as part of my project Out of the Ordinary), so I felt the need to turn my focus towards more rural places. I’ve chosen Northlands partly because it will cover communities and landscapes in the very north of the British Isles, but also because I have (ambitious!) plans to maybe extend the project to other northern European countries in the future.

Projects for me very much change and develop as they progress – I seldom start with a set idea, knowing exactly how I want to approach it. Northlands will share some similarities with Out of the Ordinary – I still intend to seek out the everyday, looking to document people’s relationship with the landscape around them, and their affect on it. But exactly what shape it will take and how I approach the photography will very much develop as a result of exploring, photographing and researching these areas.

I hope to use this space as a ‘sketchbook’ for ideas and images – these may not end up as part of the project, but it will allow me to play with them, see how I feel about them.

I had intended to be a little further on with this project by now, but as it has been a difficult year I am still working to finish off Out of the Ordinary. However, I did manage to make a start this summer, with some exploration of the islands of Mull & Iona. So I’ll leave you with a few images from these islands for just now – many thanks for looking!