After years of mostly creating images privately, this year I'm looking to build a cohesive photographic series. The project is called Yet to Be Seen—an ongoing body of work exploring human presence through landscapes, from isolation to crowded spaces, from abandoned structures to active endurance.
THE VISION
I'm drawn to what often goes unnoticed—the overlooked spaces and contrasts. Living in rural Japan as someone from the UK gives me a perspective different from both locals and visitors. Empty spaces where nature is reclaiming what was built, masses of people at endurance events temporarily occupying a trailhead that often sits deserted. The permanent and the fleeting.
This work explores my interests and where life takes me and what these different modes of presence reveal when placed alongside each other.
THE APPROACH
I've probably been overthinking the process. Yet that reflection has helped me build a loose framework I call; abstract environmental photography.
For me, this work is less about documentation and more about feeling, atmosphere and the sense of places in flux, caught between states. Whether that's a structure slowly returning to the land, or a summit temporarily transformed by a handful of athletes and spectators.
I'm working with both black and white and muted color palettes, allowing light, texture, and weather to guide the images.
WHERE IT BEGAN
The seed for this project came from my love for hiking and running trails. Yet as a craftsman I began noticing many old structures—some still in use and others just left, all in various stages of transitioning back into the landscape.
I began carrying a camera more, my eye expanded beyond the structures—noticing connections and contrasts in the landscapes. I'm on the trails regularly, drawn to the rugged landscapes and the different ways humans occupy them.
The contrast between empty and crowded, abandoned and active creates tension that I'm excited to share.
THE TITLE
Yet to Be Seen is about revealing what exists right in front of us but often goes unnoticed. The full spectrum of how we occupy space—or don't. Changes that unfold continuously whether we observe them or not.
THE AIM
I'm giving myself time to work through this without rushing toward a fixed outcome. The series will be open and developing as I make it.
If or when it feels complete, I hope to celebrate it in whatever form makes the most sense—zine, book, exhibition. But for now, I have other ideas for the practice that I will share in my next post.
