Legs beyond the Iron Gate of Diocletian's Palace. 2024.
Legs beyond the Iron Gate of Diocletian's Palace. 2024.

Palimpsest

In 1989, the political scientist Francis Fukuyama declared that humanity had reached the “End of History”. The Cold War was over. Western liberal democracy had prevailed. He lamented the loss of ideological struggle, and the looming monotony of this post-historic era. But there is another kind of End to History.

Our ecosystems are rocketing towards collapse. Our forests burn. Our oceans acidify. Extinctions happen daily, and our blood fills with plastic. If we do not act fast, there will be no one left to record us. Our history books will be left incomplete. Bookended by wilderness, we will be overwritten, just as we sought to overwrite the world.

“Palimpsest” (2023-ongoing) explores nature in this post-historic human landscape, and asks a simple question: What will our world look like when we are gone?

My undergraduate dissertation, “On Yearning” (2021), is foundational to this photographic practice. It examines a sort of wistful nostalgia for a future that cannot be. In life, we catch glimpses of worlds on our periphery: a glowing window, passed on an evening walk, hints at the lives of those within, and we long to be a part of that world, but of course we cannot. The Yearning is a glance from afar, a world imagined and desired but never experienced.

My images, like these glimpses, are a sort of synecdoche: from a single frame, a single point of punctum, they construct a view of our post-historic future. In “Beauty in Photography” (1981), Robert Adams writes that only photographs which appears “easily made can convincingly suggest that beauty is commonplace.” I seek simple, effortless images, in hopes that they might suggest a world between them. Their potency is their collective imagination.

All of my images are discoveries, spontaneous and unconstructed, not taken or made, but found. My creative practice is, essentially, walking. I explore landscapes outside of their time: off-season, empty, sun-bleached tourist towns; concrete coasts fortified long ago against war and erosion; miraculous life amidst the remnants of industry. My work contains no people.

If we all vanished tomorrow, what would remain? What would survive us? What would have been worth it? I explore landscapes with a past, not because I want to photograph that past, but because they let us glimpse into the future of our troubled world—a future at once desolate, lonely, beautiful, and strangely prehistoric—and show us what the End of History really means.

Parchment paper, window, Margate. 2023.
Parchment paper, window, Margate. 2023.
Meat tower, Southend-on-Sea. 2024.
Meat tower, Southend-on-Sea. 2024.
Bear, witness, Belsize Park. 2024.
Bear, witness, Belsize Park. 2024.
Window Safari, Primrose Hill. 2024.
Window Safari, Primrose Hill. 2024.
Window ghost, Deal. 2024.
Window ghost, Deal. 2024.
Washed ashore, Isle of Wight. 2024.
Washed ashore, Isle of Wight. 2024.
St. Catherine's Oratory, Isle of Wight. 2024.
St. Catherine's Oratory, Isle of Wight. 2024.
Cliff Path, Ventnor. 2024.
Cliff Path, Ventnor. 2024.
Rug, Kentish Town. 2023.
Rug, Kentish Town. 2023.
Treasure, Isle of Wight. 2024.
Treasure, Isle of Wight. 2024.
Young birch, London. 2024.
Young birch, London. 2024.
Forest library, Isle of Wight. 2024.
Forest library, Isle of Wight. 2024.
Windows, brick wall, Bognor Regis. 2024.
Windows, brick wall, Bognor Regis. 2024.
Gardens behind the Turner Contemporary, Margate. 2024.
Gardens behind the Turner Contemporary, Margate. 2024.
La Corbière, St. Brélade, Jersey. 2024.
La Corbière, St. Brélade, Jersey. 2024.
Shree Swaminarayan Temple, Willisden Lane. 2024.
Shree Swaminarayan Temple, Willisden Lane. 2024.
Science classroom, Catholic school, North London. 2024.
Science classroom, Catholic school, North London. 2024.
Pebble beach, Aldwick Bay. 2024.
Pebble beach, Aldwick Bay. 2024.
High castle, London. 2024.
High castle, London. 2024.
Boyle Fredrickson, Milwaukee. 2023.
Boyle Fredrickson, Milwaukee. 2023.
St. Anne's Court, Herne Bay. 2024.
St. Anne's Court, Herne Bay. 2024.
Pigeon flight, Isle of Wight. 2024.
Pigeon flight, Isle of Wight. 2024.
Oak leaf, Rothamstead. 2023.
Oak leaf, Rothamstead. 2023.
Tailor, Petőfi Sándor Street, Budapest. 2024.
Tailor, Petőfi Sándor Street, Budapest. 2024.
Neptune's Hall, Broadstairs. 2023.
Neptune's Hall, Broadstairs. 2023.
Le Pinacle, Les Landes, Jersey. 2024.
Le Pinacle, Les Landes, Jersey. 2024.
Sea wall, Broadstairs. 2023.
Sea wall, Broadstairs. 2023.
Naval tower, Les Landes, Jersey. 2024.
Naval tower, Les Landes, Jersey. 2024.
Beach huts V, Aldwick Bay. 2024.
Beach huts V, Aldwick Bay. 2024.
Reculver Towers, Herne Bay. 2024.
Reculver Towers, Herne Bay. 2024.
Shed, train window, Weymouth. 2024.
Shed, train window, Weymouth. 2024.
Another pinacle, La Laison de la Moye, Jersey. 2024.
Another pinacle, La Laison de la Moye, Jersey. 2024.
Wine merchant, Southend-on-Sea. 2024.
Wine merchant, Southend-on-Sea. 2024.
A place to rest, Minnis Bay. 2024.
A place to rest, Minnis Bay. 2024.
Shrubs on bus. 2024.
Shrubs on bus. 2024.
Sand, St. Brélade's Bay, Jersey. 2024.
Sand, St. Brélade's Bay, Jersey. 2024.
Caravan, Margate. 2023.
Caravan, Margate. 2023.
Hilton, facing south, Edgeware Road. 2024.
Hilton, facing south, Edgeware Road. 2024.
Nautical fair, Split. 2024.
Nautical fair, Split. 2024.
Cecil Sharp House, London. 2024.
Cecil Sharp House, London. 2024.
Office window I, St. Pancras. 2024.
Office window I, St. Pancras. 2024.
Bollard, blank wall, Bognor Regis. 2024.
Bollard, blank wall, Bognor Regis. 2024.
Road work, La Rue de Haut, Jersey. 2024.
Road work, La Rue de Haut, Jersey. 2024.
Hilton, facing west, Edgeware Road. 2024.
Hilton, facing west, Edgeware Road. 2024.
Kiosk, Omiּš. 2024.
Kiosk, Omiּš. 2024.
Stairwell, Omiּš. 2024.
Stairwell, Omiּš. 2024.
Dappling, Canterbury. 2024.
Dappling, Canterbury. 2024.
Display, Petőfi Sándor Street, Budapest. 2024.
Display, Petőfi Sándor Street, Budapest. 2024.
ATM, Omiּš. 2024.
ATM, Omiּš. 2024.
ATM, Split. 2024.
ATM, Split. 2024.
Squirrel nests, Isle of Wight. 2024.
Squirrel nests, Isle of Wight. 2024.
East wall, Diocletian's Palace. 2024.
East wall, Diocletian's Palace. 2024.
Harbor light, grève d'Azette, Jersey. 2024.
Harbor light, grève d'Azette, Jersey. 2024.
Vörösmarty tér, Budapest. 2024.
Vörösmarty tér, Budapest. 2024.
ATM, Petőfi Sándor Street, Budapest. 2024.
ATM, Petőfi Sándor Street, Budapest. 2024.
Tide marker, Aldwick Bay. 2024.
Tide marker, Aldwick Bay. 2024.
Pedalos, Weymouth. 2024.
Pedalos, Weymouth. 2024.
Sea road, Marjan. 2024.
Sea road, Marjan. 2024.
Waterloo square, Bognor Regis. 2024.
Waterloo square, Bognor Regis. 2024.
Longing, Hampton Court Palace. 2024.
Longing, Hampton Court Palace. 2024.
Caravan, Deal. 2024.
Caravan, Deal. 2024.
Underground parking, Varoš, Split. 2024.
Underground parking, Varoš, Split. 2024.
Garden, Omiּš. 2024.
Garden, Omiּš. 2024.
Seabed playground, Ventnor. 2024.
Seabed playground, Ventnor. 2024.
Houseplant, fogged glass, London. 2024.
Houseplant, fogged glass, London. 2024.
Plastic curtains, Bognor Regis. 2024.
Plastic curtains, Bognor Regis. 2024.