Birmingham
Pinhole Photographs, 2003
Although Birmingham has changed a great deal since these pinhole photographs were taken in 2003, they were never intended to be a document of that time. This could be any UK city, in the past or in the present day. I purposely chose to nest my camera within little green weed-patches amidst the concrete landscape. The resulting pictures seem to show a bleak, untended urban landscape, but they also tell the story of how quickly nature could reclaim its original territory should circumstances allow. A pinhole camera has no lens, hence no plane of focus to draw your eye. This juxtaposes foreground and background without hierarchy and reveals an unfamiliar perspective. Perhaps this is Birmingham from a mouse's eye view, or maybe the weeds have actually grown exceptionally tall and the streets are becoming wild spaces once again…