From darkness

The Suffolk Coastline is one that has been heavily defended throughout history and the evidence remains in the form of Napoleonic Martello Towers and First and Second World War pill boxes and gun batteries.

In Bawdsey one such structure has become home to numerous swallows who return here every spring to make their nest and raise their young. The joy of their constant chat is a complete contrast to the darkness these buildings have seen and the grim history they symbolise.

In this project I wanted to see if I could produce a series of images with the theme ‘from darkness.’ My idea was to use the defence battery and observation tower as representations of war - of darkness and of humanity at its worst.

I decided to focus on the openings in these buildings - the places where light can penetrate. In particular I wanted to mirror the shapes of these doors and windows with images of nature, to represent the joy I find in this place. In essence I wanted to tell the story of these old fortifications which were built in times of darkness but are now a haven for life.

To achieve a visual difference between my dark images and my nature shots I chose to use a combination of split toned black and white compositions for the dark images and slightly desaturated shots for my nature images.

I created some page layouts in Indesign and used blocks of grey to mimic the angular structures in the black and white images. Within these blocks I placed my colour images mirroring the openings in the buildings - rectangles of light within the darker tones. I decided to use one word on each page to tell my story.

I have written about this project on my blog and you can read more about what inspired my ideas here