On the English side of the Welsh border is the Forest of Dean. It is an ancient place, once the hunting reserve of Kings. It is a forest of plantation and ancient woodland, of heath land, quarries and mines. Locally it is known as the Forest, and its inhabitants, Foresters.
There is an idea found in literary and pictorial Romanticism that to soften our confusion about what it means to dwell on the earth, we should endeavour to return to it in our everyday lives. In this forest there is a collective desire among the inhabitants to maintain the ecological balance of their land, which serves as the foundation of their culture and collective memory.
Vorest considers the relationship between the narratives of the past and the environment in the present; a shift in perspective from the modern idea of ownership of land, to a more balanced relationship with it. This work combines my own photographs with digitally-sourced aerial images and archival material found locally. It considers the land in detail, its topography, traces of past human activity and our role within it. I grew up on the border of the Forest. In this landscape, I am both a Forester and an outsider. Through Vorest, I endeavour to better understand this land and our place within it.
