Place

(I Love) Long-form Documentary

Long-form is where I live as a photographer — not the quick project of a few frames, but the deep, patient body of work built from many. I have four projects on the go (three too many, if I'm honest), and underneath them all is the same question: what matters to me? I was born and raised in England, and I now live in Pennsylvania — two homes, at least in my head. I'm pulled back and forth by the visuals and the history of both.

The galleries below contain samples of pictures from each project.

Cambridge

Cambridge is the project closest to completion. I've lived in Cambridge, UK, twice — as a student and as an adult. The photographs are finished; now come the writing, design, and publishing. Cambridge looks past the one-day tourist trail to something richer, with something for visitors and locals alike. It’s also an over-ambitious attempt to tell the history of England from the perspective of a single city. The essays grow out of the photographs — though they are not descriptions. My words look at history as closely as my camera looks at the scene.

Cipher to Anne Boleyn ("Regina Anna, Sovereign"), King's College Chapel

William Pitt Sr bust, Fitzwilliam Museum

KIng's College Chapel organ loft and great windows

Isaac Newton statue, Trinity College Chapel

Londonopoly

Londonopoly explores London using the board game Monopoly as a guide, traveling the whole board in real time, from Old Kent Road to Mayfair. On the lookout for tokens (the wheelbarrow was hard to find), free parking (it doesn't exist), utilities, and more. These photographs are also complete, bound for now into a charming handmade artist's book. Slightly impractical for commercial sales, I'm hunting for a new, easier-to-reproduce form.

Sister, Hanover Square, near Oxford Street

Statues of Westminster

Statues of Westminster asks what stories a nation chooses to remember, and why. Westminster is the seat of England's government and is densely packed with statues, reliefs, tombs, and plaques — of statesmen and politicians, monarchs and royalty, military men and champions of causes, elevated in history and in fact. As with Cambridge, photographs and essays will work side by side.

Small-town Pennsylvania

Small-town Pennsylvania, where I live, is my last project. Pennsylvania has close to a thousand small towns. I'm after their character: a cemetery, a main street, a post office, an American Legion (often with a tank), and a war memorial, kissing gnomes, rust. They make me smile, with names like Punxsutawney, Zion, Snow Shoe, Olyphant, Geeseyville; they also make me sad: the rust belt is real. Pennsylvania is 46,000 square miles (Cambridge is 16 square miles, Westminster is only 9). This project is for the long road. I'm in no hurry.