Collected memories

The more we see imagery of people, places and spaces, the more our individual memories are shaped by the photographs that we choose to hold onto.      As time passes and details fade, these photographs become our memories.

Collected memories

"The more we see imagery of people, places and spaces, the more our individual memories are shaped by the photographs that we choose to hold onto.   

As time passes and details fade, these photographs become our memories. As a result when an image is made, explicitly or subconsciously, decisions are being made about how things will be remembered.   

While these images are my collected memories, they are here to be shared and possibly become yours too.   

The series has evolved over the last 5 years and has coincided with a focus on mindfulness and meditation in my life.   

All images were photographed on medium format film.   

Good things take time."   

— Mark Forbes 

In terms of my general approach to photography, I am an image collector. The vast majority of my photos occur organically, very much by happenchance, usually on the way to a different destination. People often comment that my photography gives them a sense of déjà vu and longing, even when they know they’ve never been to the places in the images. However there is something very familiar, something intangible that can be related to. It is this deeper connection with the viewer that I strive to achieve through my photography.

For me, the memories in my images are created through multiple layers of connection. Fore mostly, clearly there is the subject matter in frame. However there are also other important factors at play, including possibly - relevance to a childhood event, the nature and relationship of the colours, the light falling on the scene, a song you can hear - or is playing in my head at the time.  

The scenes that I choose to document are clearly ordinary life, commonplace and mundane. However it is the approach to these scenes - the human presence - despite an abject lack of a person, the personality of objects within, the tangible details and the importance of documenting scenes that tend to disappear over time - that for me combine to create the images that are so essential to share.