Penarth Pier

“This realization of this work began in January 2020, when a dying friend in hospital knew that, after visiting her, our mutual friend Teresa and I would go on to Penarth for a walk. We knew that this was a special visit and had to be documented with a photograph. And then afterwards, the conversation began: ‘Why don’t you take pictures of the views?...’   Originally for this project  I had planned to go back to Penarth to make a new body of work, but lockdown occurred and I found myself at home, enjoying the opportunity to talk with Teresa  about our existing images of the place, and how they form a vital part of our friendship and our memories. The finished work is, therefore, not concerned with creating a new and significant body of photographs, but instead engages existing images to think about those that have been lost, and the experiences that form a vital part of, yet are in some sense lost to, each photograph I take. It draws on the baggage that photography brings: the conflict between memory and image, both rediscovered and drawn afresh.     In the development of the work, I began to experiment with drawing digitally some of the views in my mind of Penarth. Through closing my eyes and ‘seeing the views’, I was able to create several sketches. At a time when it was not possible to visit, this exercise felt poignant and surprisingly up-lifting. Through the filming of the piece, it is possible perhaps to see ‘memory in action’ as I erase and work towards the finished sketch, considering perspective and the components of the view. The beginning and final photographic images were taken after the realisation of the idea for this work, with the idea of exhibiting in mind. It is, however,  through the beach image, that the viewer of the film can start to use their own memory to recall the view from the pier in relation to my completed sketch.  And so the process of memory becomes an interwoven and intrinsic part of viewing the work”.