Introduction

Before entering the site to look at the pictures, which let’s face it is the bit we all want to get to when looking at image based sites, I thought it could be helpful if I described briefly my work over the past years.

I am always suspicious of visual practitioners who feel the need to pontificate about their work, but hopefully the following is nothing more than a brief overview of my practice to date. If you find yourself drifting off into a coma at any stage, please feel free to skip this introduction and instead go straight to the work. For those of you who persevere I hope the following text may help shed some light into the dark and dusty corners of my career in photography. 

Due to the nature of the projects I undertake I am often described/categorised as an ‘independent photographer’ (though perhaps ‘dependent photographer’ would be nearer the mark!). I work with museums, galleries and arts agencies on projects, either commissioned or self initiated, that reflect my interest in social and industrial change, concern for the environment, and more recently issues around the depiction of mental health. 

My work has been exhibited, and published, widely both nationally and internationally, including exhibitions in London, the USA, Mexico, South America and the Canary Islands, and is featured in a number of important collections including the NMPFT in Bradford, the Victoria & Albert Museum, London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 

Past work includes a trilogy of projects based around nuclear history, this work has taken me to sites around the world that have become notorious due to their nuclear connections, including Los Alamos, the Trinity Site, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Three Mile Island, Sellafield and Chernobyl.

The final part of this trilogy 'Legacy, Inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone' was published by Dewi Lewis Publishing in 2001.

This is my fifth book of photographs, previous titles include 'Working Lives', based on the clothing industries of Manchester and Stockport; 'The Big Ditch', on the Manchester Ship Canal and 'Jimmy Jock, Albert & the Six Sided Clock' looking at the changes affecting the Port of Liverpool. 

I have recently completed two distinctly different projects, 'Dark Days' an as yet unseen project documenting the impact of foot and mouth disease around my home in north Cumbria; and 'A Black Dog Came Calling', an allegorical ‘journey’ through the process of depression. This particular project has recently been exhibited in London and Italy. 

The Black Dog work marks a significant change of direction for me in terms of exploring a personal, internalised, state of being rather than looking to specific external sites. It can be argued, and often is, that all art by its very nature is essentially autobiographical…that being the case I leave you to reach your own conclusions regarding the subjects I have chosen to become involved with. 

Other recent projects include 'A Different World', a commission for Salford’s  Lowry Centre looking at the physical and psychological changes that have taken place around the former Manchester Docks, and society in general, in the two decades since I first explored the area for the book/exhibition 'The Big Ditch'. Interestingly The Lowry now stands on the exact same spot as the derelict warehouse featured on the cover of 'The Big Ditch' book.

I have also completed/exhibited part one of an exploration into the work of the German artist Kurt Schwitters. 'After Schwtters' is a personal response to the Merzbarn/Cylinders site at Elterwater in Cumbria. Further explorations of Schwitters life and work will occur in Norway, Germany and the Isle of Man. 

I have also completed a major new project, entitled 'Not Starting from Here'. This work can best be described as a psychological ‘journey’ loosely based on the west coast of Cumbria. I will be looking to exhibit this work during 2007/8.  

Also featured on this site is an ongoing body of work '100 Yards. Or So' exploring the river habitat close to my home in Cumbria. 

Additional information regarding each body of work is to be found within the projects section. 

I am about to begin a new project provisionally entitled ‘Changing Places’ looking at image and (my) memory in and around my old hometown of Bolton. This work is being produced in collaboration with Bolton Museum and Art Gallery for exhibition in 2008/9. 

I hope my ramblings haven’t put you off taking your explorations further, and that you find within the enclosed images at least some, that give you the same sense of excitement and emotional stimulus that I felt during their production. 

Please call back from time to time to view new images as projects develop over the coming months. 

John Darwell