Having talked about Patrick Shanahan in a previous post I’ve been re-looking at English photographers that capture something uniquely ‘English’. John Darwell’s work touches me very deeply - I feel as if I am coming from a similar tradition in a way.

I worked and studied for many years in the North of England - in the early 80s I was teaching in Yorkshire during ‘the’ miners strike - and much of John’s work reflects this area.

There is a lot of work on his website and you can see his devlopment and concerns.

The above image is taken from In Isolation

From his statement…

In many ways the images presented here can best be regarded as my first exploratory attempts at finding a new vocabulary within which to work and as such can best viewed as an ongoing and continually developing ‘work in progress’.

In many ways the ability to move freely whilst observing the shifts occurring in the differing layers of focus was, and is, a wonderfully liberating and exciting development within my image making.

Echoes of my new stylistic approach can subsequently be seen within the majority of projects that have followed this period of experimentation.

Images from this series were initially shown along the escalator walls at London’s Euston Station.

He’s done a number of docu projects, none of which move me as deeply as the ones concerning things closer to home. Such as The Garden of Earthly Delights from which this image is taken.

 

 

I came across John’s work whilst researching for my Scene of the Crime project, his Black Dog work touched on a similar area

 

 

from the artist statement

This work is the culmination of three years of research and marks another major shift in my development. Here I attempt to take the viewer on an allegorical ‘journey’ through the process of depression as viewed from a first-hand perspective. Combined with the images are two text pieces * that carry the work forward to a conclusion that can be positive or negative depending on the perceptions of the viewer.

 

I start ‘loosing’ John after the garden of Earthly Delights - the series up until then I really enjoy. But definitely spend some time on his site.