Mark Adams
Photography

Taking its title and from Tennyson’s poem, ‘In Memoriam’ is a series of photographs that explore mortality and landscape by responding to the ancient burial sites of Dalby Forest. The project features landscapes and collected organic objects such as driftwood and eroded rock connecting two locations - the Adderstone area of Dalby Forest and the Tynemouth coast. Like Tennyson’s poem the work meditates on life’s continuity after death and loss.

Both of the sites have historical connections with the body, burial and its associated rituals. The forest contains hidden funerary sites in the form of burial mounds, while Tynemouth Bay is one of the few registered sea burial sites in the UK. The work establishes dialogue between the shifting topographies of the forest and the eroded geological surfaces of the coast, reflecting on states of change, renewal, transience and impermanence.

Placing these oblique photographs in close proximity to forgotten, commemorative locations aims to illuminate the hidden narratives of place and history, forming relationships between earth, sea, body and landscape.