Square Mile

The brief for this assignment was to make a series of six to twelve photographs in response to the concept of “Square Mile”.

My initial response to the brief was that I wanted to take photos of the River Yeo and the streams that feed it as they make their way through Yeovil. This idea changed very rapidly after I spent two hours photographing a half mile stretch along one stream, focussing on culverts and other water drainage features that emptied into the stream.

The practitioners that influenced me during this project were Roni Horn and Keith Arnatt. Horn’s images from Another Water (2011), made me think of using the course of the streams and river as a way to link between each image. Arnatt’s work Miss Grace’s Lane (2007) showed that it’s possible to use things that people wouldn’t normally give a second glance at as the theme for a series of images. In this assignments case the culverts and drainage pipes don’t register, or are never seen by residents because they never get close enough to the stream to notice them. Which leads the question of “do we really know what lies beneath our feet?”

All of the images were taken with the camera handheld. For some images, particularly where I went back to retake images I wasn’t happy with, I used a flash unit.

There are a number of images that I particularly like and feel are quite strong for various reasons.

Reflection is an image that had to be captured at the right time. When I revisited the area to redo some of the images the area beneath the culvert cover was dry and the opportunity to capture the reflection of the cover wasn’t available. This highlighted for me just how much chance and timing play in capturing an image.

What lurks within made me think about the conversation with the dog walker and also another conversation I had with some friends about crocodiles living in the tunnels. At the time I was taking this set of images I didn’t notice the two glowing eyes and the dark shape of what appears to be a cat heading towards me.

Of the whole set I feel that What Lies Within is the strongest image of the set. I took this using LiveView. The inside of the pipe was just light enough to see the stones and crisp packet near the end but not light enough to see the ones at the back, and also not light enough to see the spider’s web which shows faintly in the resulting image. Where it’s creator is, I don’t know.

My intention with the project is to continue with the initial plan and photograph along the streams and river. I already know of a spot where locals have gentrified an area by adding flowers and other features.