Coasting

Throughout the pandemic of Covid-19,  the action of enforced lockdowns and restrictions has  altered our relationship with nature. It is well documented that  increased exposure to nature  improves mental wellbeing, has this increased interaction had an adverse effect on our natural environment? To what extent is this a warning of how we must adapt and change the way in which we are living. 

Through exploring my own cultural and  historical attitudes towards nature, this project explores the current ecological concerns of rising sea level and pollution. Drawing upon the anthropomorphisation of nature as my visual mode akin to that of the  green man and mariners rhymes. Through the eyes of the ancient seafarer cast upon our  shores, we observe this crumbling landscape, now scarred, only to be reflected to see ourselves as the seafarer, and our eventual demise. 

Re-evaluation of the conventional chemical photographic process led to exploring natural resources.  The use of seaweed collected from my daily walk to develop photographic film and  caffenol to produce the prints, with their own nature due to the inconsistencies and unpredictability within the ecological process. These idiosyncratic qualities are a result of the indeterminacy, which is only allegorical of nature.