Edale

This project has revolved around conflict since the first thoughts that brought it into existence. Initially, it was the conflict between ideas, whether to try something new and embrace the ‘Other’ or stick to what feels more authentic and naturally flows from previous ventures and thoughts. Embracing the unknown in the initial exploration was fun and attractive, yet the conflict came from the inspiration. If, when let, inspiration led to a desire of ‘Otherness’, then is it truly ‘Other’? Or if this was ignored and the work remained in a perhaps safer avenue of style and inspiration, would that make it dishonest? And thus the ‘Conflict of the Inspired’ came to be. 

Mental conflict led to physical exploration, spanning multiple locations, subjects, formats and styles. Initially, a large format black and white project in the Peak District journeyed to an abandoned and disused canal system. Which then went to be made on colour medium formatfilm, this was an exciting and new experience, but it felt forced and didn’t fit a sustainable workflow, similarly to the previous attempt of large format. After walking and cycling to explore, sitting and listening, reading and writing in this location, the project was moved once again. The peaks were calling.

A hot day out in Edale, a small town in the north of the Peak District National Park, walking twelve and a half miles after going through a rough patch in my Christian faith, led to two rolls of black and white film that changed the course of this whole project. Once developed, the joy and memory of the tactile black and white film experience returned, and the photos were undeniable. They were a real documentation of Edale, yet with a common, but unconscious, theme of the way that ‘Man’ had infiltrated the land, but moreover, how the land has fought back. From abandoned cars and the skulls of sheep, to rolling hills and wandering paths. The conflict that started in inspiration seemed to be made manifest in how the images were made. 

Ten days later, and another 8 miles travelled, there were three more rolls to be developed. With a more clearly outlined narrative to pursue these roles, the project developed with a further grasp of the conflict found in the picturesque land of Edale. As aforementioned, this town is a place of beautiful views and flourishing wildlife, yet humanity has had its influence. A once wild land is now carefully dissected into plots, agriculture taking over, with nature taking the brunt. Not to say these things are all inherently bad, but they certainly present a juxtaposition of the subjects and where these are found. Edale is gorgeous, but where humanity lies, conflict endures. 

All this is a very literal tale of the process of this project, yet what will unfurl within the research that curated it is the constant strain of conflict that was part of its creation and where art, literature, poetry and God have been so heavily involved.