RAVINE

A selection of images from a body of work titled RAVINE. "Initially this work was entirely about my unravelling through the premise of failure. but the further I went the more compulsive it became."

There I am as a five year old dressed as a Roman Legionnaire in a fancy dress competition on a

low sports ground stage, in front of a crowd of strangers with a cripplingly

poor sense of self worth and hyper self awareness.

This never left me.

The overarching fear of rejection, coupled with poor mental health, fear of relationship and

commitment has travelled with me to this point.

This I have grown to accept and adhere to.

Initially this work was entirely about my unravelling through the premise of failure;

The impression of loss via a breaking of bond and partnership.

Attached to this was a kind of selfishness and pursuit of reprimand,

challenging, torturing and twisting myself.

I chewed up and spat myself out.

Stayed up, stayed away, got loaded and repeated it.

The further I went the more compulsive it became.

Wandering parts of the city I live in, town I grew up in and the Karoo, I have made these images

as documents of myself, for myself.

Holding textures of areas that are clear and familiar or not at all, places I love and despise,

and people - family, friends and the idea of strangers sketched into the work.

Slowly fleshed, and an attempt at digesting what had occurred and more so what, who

I am and why.

The notion of relationship that I formed as a child based on circumstances has been ever present and informed me.

My relationship to family, lovers, friends and space is a constant tension.

It is inherently uncomfortable.

You may feel this unease, maybe even the same discomfort I had and have felt for so long.

There is an energy in the nothingness, in the beauty, in the spaces, the death and in those I have spent time with over the years photographing,

I think it is reflection in a way.

There is humour too, but again it is disquiet.

Ravine is an arrangement, an attempt at making sense.

My night sea journey of sorts.

This work spans eight years, 2016-2024.