Familiar Spaces in Unusual Places

The work I make is more often than not a visual guide to a place. My guide. As with all art, it is my interpretation alone, one that doesn’t encapsulate the perceptions of everyone who experiences that place. With this in mind, I set out to create this collection of photographs with no real agenda other than to understand what makes Barnsley beautiful, and isn’t it just? As an artist from Doncaster, I know Barnsley somewhat geographically. I know people who live and work here and I have visited for various reasons. However, I've shared no genuine connection with Barnsley, until now. But, as unacquainted as I might be, I feel a familiarity and an unwavering loyalty to this place. 

What I discovered along this journey is a landscape that is pure and true to its roots, with an understanding of the importance of its locality. At the same time it is accepting and embracing innovation, sustainability, and empowering its community to strive for cleaner ways of living. Along with the new and improved centre, Barnsley is predominantly a town made up of villages that all have their own character and contribution to its anatomy. Nestled in the surroundings of the Yorkshire countryside, I am at home.  These photographs take you through my guide to understanding a place and to discovering its visual cues. At the heart of my work is how we as individuals create our own picture of a place through our way of seeing, over any inter-personal experience. The points of reference I present embrace green spaces, light, and hallmarks of the past and the future. 

Familiar spaces in unusual places was commissioned by The Civic Gallery as part of ‘Barnsley: Portrait of a Town’ exhibiting May - July 23