‘Outlook’ reflects on the landscape of the North East from 2016-23 mapping my time in North Shields. Over this period the North East has encountered a number of economic and political challenges from Brexit, the pandemic and the looming environmental crisis.
The coast seems a suitable location and context in which to explore these challenges. Cultural, environmental forces and notions of identity converge at the edge of land when looking outward towards the horizon or inward towards the North East’s architecture, people and topography. This often overlooked area of England is an opportunity to obliquely reference these existential concerns and vulnerabilities.
In photographs of structures positioned precariously on the edge of land the vision is clear, direct and un-obstructed. Coastal architecture, redundant military and vernacular structures along redeveloped sea fronts become an instrument of the gaze, accompanying human contemplation and reflection.