The Bright Places (2019)

I started this project by conducting a series of interviews with people in their early twenties about significant relationships in their lives. The basic idea was that in talking to them I’d find some kind of overlap to the way in which I perceive and value the relationships in my own life; pivotal emblems from which I’ve learnt and grown. 

I was interested in looking at different kinds of relationships, such as between people, with a place or career or health condition. I was interested in how they work as some kind of reflector or marker. You can learn and grow as an individual person through the complexities of emotions you experience while tied to this other ‘thing’. It is an attachment with a reciprocal push and pull. The ‘thing’ that you love and feel close to can also be the thing that challenges you the most and ultimately pushes you away.

As we grow, we have to decide how we want to participate in the world. We have to decide what voice we want to assert, what boundaries to set between private and personal spaces, and ultimately what and who we care most about; to be conscious of the decisions we make and the consequences that follow.

The photographs shown here are inspired by real stories that people were generous enough to share with me. Through my own lens I have recreated scenes that embody the sentiment of these stories, trying to subtly visualise a moment of realisation or turning point when something has changed. Without extra context given, the audience is asked to bring their own narrative; to invent the before and after and reflect on the relationships that shape them.