Output details

True: 80 Photographs

Is it possible to turn ideas of the Imaginary and the Invisible into the Tangible and the Physical? Is it possible to make photographic work that investigates problems of geography and emotional condition in the extreme environment and location of the North and the South Pole and the two Polar Circles that surround them? Is it possible to do this whilst pursuing the notion of the ‘sea picture’ further? Finally is it possible to locate, map and describe places through photography by avoiding literal description and illustration? The investigative methods, were based on geography, cartography and photography. The ‘Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World ’ was the main general consultation document, followed by ‘The Arctic Pilot’ for precision site location. Through consulting these maps, specific locations were identified to be empirically investigated by a photographic camera in direct field-based, site-specific research. By making a single picture in each place, a register of points of view emerges and collectively culminates both geography and condition. By making work in the cardinal extremes – the most possible ‘north’ and ‘south’ and the invisible circles that support and surround them, I aim to discover and establish the emotional condition that is situated and mirrored. TRUE is a practice-based project. 3. Context: The geographical importance of the Poles and their Circles is well documented and researched, yet these places are very rarely presented in actual terms. The ambition of TRUE is not to provide illustration of an unusual, but notable and important landscape, but to work with specific (historical, anthropological, cultural) aspects of the locations and to utilize them as ‘canvas’ for the presentation of aspects of the human condition in extremis. These pictures aim to propose through the gathering of the collective sea-spaces described, a contemporary terra incognita.

TRUE contains the first body of artists’ photographic work to negotiate such a vast surface of inaccessible geography. The project considers the question of whether the intangible is linked to geography and how.

Within two years in the field and one year in production, TRUE’s photographic materials were pushed beyond their predictable limits. Logistically, it took five years to gain access to the various sites on these solo expeditions. Cost was prohibitive but obtained through multiple foundation support.

The project pursued difficult qualities and characteristics of the colour white in its making, and is considered creatively unique in its result.