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Crystal Garden (WIP)
At 19 I ran away to Bulgaria. I was suffering from depression, and felt the need to leave home and settle somewhere far away and unfamiliar, somewhere that felt entirely mine. For six months I lived with strangers and grew apart from my family back home. The place left a mark on me that I have never quite been able to explain or shake off.
In 2025, I returned. This time, I drove there with my father, undertaking a slow journey by van from the UK, and photographing along the route.
I knew I needed someone by my side in order to return to this place. Even when it was a far away thought, I was always drawn to returning here, but scared of it too. It was, and is, like a plug hole which I have orbited ever and ever closer to. The further we travelled, the stranger time began to feel. The five years between my first visit and this one seemed to shrink away, while those original six months loomed impossibly large.
In the series Windows (2026), images are presented beside steel panels which were sourced at the far edge of our journey into Bulgaria.
Back home, I stripped each panel of its protective coating and left them outside, letting natural decay transform their surfaces over many months. Each panel is different, each carrying the evidence of time passing. I chose steel because it balances strength with sensitivity and possesses the quiet embrace of change that sits at the heart of my story.