Restoration
Artist Statement
These images were created in historical gardens, under restoration and maintenance at the time, from three specific eras - Elizabethan, Georgian and Victorian. I was originally drawn to photographing this subject by the BBC show “Restoration” (2008) which hELD contests for the renewal of traditional gardens and awarded funds to the winners for landscape restoration projects. The focus of this TV program made me realize how landscape design can contribute to the making of a cultural identity.
The historical garden is, in many ways, a living museum.
In my more established series, vague terrain, I am not so concerned with the specificity of place as I am with the ambiguities created by the de-contextualized images. In this newer work in heritage gardens, however, I am interested in focusing on a specific kind of site, one that has a well-documented history and has been recorded photographically innumerable times by both tourists and commercial photographers. This pre-existing catalogue of visual history has challenged my way of working with the subject, forcing me to research extensively before photographing. By studying what others before me have photographed through idealized lenses, I am able to refine my own point of view: finding instances of a beautiful vulnerability behind the celebrated and durable conceptions of these gardens.
Constant vigilance, maintenance and restoration by a host of professional designers, gardeners and volunteers help to maintain the gardens and provide a focus for the cultural pride of many visitors. However, instead of romanticizing heritage gardens, I am drawn to images which reveal the fragile balance between nature and the requirements of human design in the gardens, underscoring the fact that that they are in essence evolving, ever-changing environments.