From reading my previous blog posts about these two shoots I am sure it is clear to work out the direction in which I am wanting to take this project. Over the past week, I have had fun shooting different locations in the hunt to find the hook for this project. And I feel like this has really helped me with the thinking process of the body of work that I am about to embark on. After my previous project, I know that it is important for me to find the grounding of this project early on so that I can get the most out of the time that I have for this project.
Going forward I am going to focus on the World War two sites that have been left along the south coast of Devon and Cornwall. These spaces interest me as they never saw action, however, men were posted on many of the sites, just waiting in case something did happen. My research and knowledge are slim in this area so I would also like to gain more knowledge on the area the I spend so much of my time walking on. It interests me because the land is beginning to take back the sites that resemble war and the purposes they were built for no longer exist. I want to question the purpose of the war, what it meant for the people in the local area and whether it was a pointless time of pain and suffering for those who lived during it. I do not believe in war, I believe that we should look towards mother nature for the answers as it is far more powerful than our finite minds.
This project is going to be heavily research-led. I would also like to dig into the archive and find photographs that were taken during the time of war. I think that I will be able to build a body of work that questions the meaning of the war by photographing the sites that were built to defend our country in case of invasion. The body of work will question the theories around borders and division that it causes people. Simply by capturing the way in which the land responds to our actions on it.
