Fences as Subject...

The one repetition throughout all of the photographic shoots has been fences. Not only do they provide the flat surface which I can walk parallel to and photograph step by step they can also be interpreted in many ways. A fence is a way of dividing space, it sections of areas and boundaries and you are always, in essence, on one side of them. They also control where we walk, forcing us to stay on a specific path, following a specific side whether we choose it or not. There is also a sense that fences are there to protect us, keep us out of unsafe areas and keep things that are dangerous to us from coming in. They give us a false sense of security from both dangerous landscapes and dangerous people.  There is a mystery surrounding what is on the other side of a fence, where and what is this area we are not meant to access?                                    

There is one fence that I have already investigated in Nottingham in the area of Sherwood forest. Last year I conducted a project on Sherwood Forest trying to negotiate an understanding of how it has been deforested:

"Yes, that Sherwood forest. What was once a thick and dark mass of trees covering 100,000 acres is now a spartan 450 acres. Intense harvesting of the forest's massive, ancient oaks for several centuries is the cause of the deforestation of this legendary woodland. Outcrops of Sherwood's trees exist beyond the 450 acres but are not dense enough to be considered intact forest."  LINK

examples of previous investigation into Sherwood:

Within the remains of what is now called Sherwood forest (a mere tourist attraction where only one ancient oak exists propped up and kept alive for people to view) there is a fence which divides small forests of Birch and Scots Pine from Thoresby Colliery. The coal mine opened in 1919 due to the economic value of the substance and has been operating since that time. During my last project I walked around the fence to see how it interacted with the landscape however I never really found the appropriate technique to photograph the relationship between moving through the space and capturing it. Now I have discovered the technique of the Kodak and my working method whilst walking around the space I knew I had to re-visit the space.

On the bus on the way to Sherwood I wrote this short text to explain to myself why I was going:

"By conducting a shoot within a place I already understand I am combining the machine parameters of the method with the documentary aspects if SUBJECT. The project becomes about something more than just a method I have discovered for collecting images.. it becomes the method aligning with its representation of A STORY and hopefully gives the images a sense of real relevance and coherence. HOPFULLY"

MAP OF SHERWOOD