I am interested in showing the hand of man in my landscape photography and I use this photography to highlight how we configure the world around us, both intentionally (through design) and unintentionally (collectively and unconsciously). It is not possible to find land within the UK that has not in some way been shape by humans, even the most remote and wild regions have been farmed, grazed upon or otherwise exploited for our needs.
Through my photography I focus on the urban landscape where human endeavour is all too obvious. I have an interest in modern architecture but more widely I am interested in urban spaces that have not been overly designed, and architecture that has existed long enough for a discourse to exist around it. On a more global scale, I am concerned with the speed at which we are consuming our finite resources in order to build and maintain our cities and our city lifestyles.
The sixty miles of canals that zigzag through London are a largely neglected and often overlooked aspect of the city. Flanked with rusting reminders of the industries that they once supported, and their bland contemporary counterparts, London’s canals are rarely alluring in any conventional sense.
Away from the CCTV that closely monitors the more populous regions of the city, a sense of lawlessness and petty criminality often prevails. Redevelopment and decay appear in equal measure along the canals banks provoking strong feelings of desolation and alienation.
As the motorways of their time, the canal system was established as a cost effective means of transporting goods from manufacturer to market. Since their construction two hundred years ago they have been superseded twice – initially by the railway network and more recently by road transport. Across the country the demise of the working canal system led to their gentrification as recreation replaced labour. In London this transition is less evident and their recent history is one of abandonment and underinvestment, of land sales and sporadic corporate redevelopment.
This project sets out to documents the legacy of neglect and the recent surge of redevelopment by exploring the landscape, architecture and infrastructure surrounding the London canal network.