
Andy Marshall's Genius Loci Digest: 14 July 2023
I'm travelling in Woody on the way to a photoshoot beyond London, but I make a detour to see a place that I've been wanting to see for a very long time.
In the late 1990's I had a breakdown that ultimately led me, through a journey that took me away from depression, to a new career in photography. What made all the grit of the dark days worthwhile was that I was left with something that felt like a pearl - a new way of seeing and interacting with things - more sensual, emotive and visual. These posts explore different ways of seeing and experiencing our world.
I'm travelling in Woody on the way to a photoshoot beyond London, but I make a detour to see a place that I've been wanting to see for a very long time.
After spending prolonged days wrestling with the light through my viewfinder, I’ve experienced a kind of photo-serotonin effect, as if a transfusion has taken place resulting in an inner glow, unable to stop chattering; a feeling of being baptised with the splendour of it.
When I was photographing it, I was taken aback by their clasped hands.
Deeply troubled by world events, I set about basic tasks in the hope that, out of this simple act, I might find something that offers up the best of humanity.
During my visit, I enter the church via the porch which has an angel topped gate that houses a lock and latch that is a shrine in itself - a secular shrine to its maker.
Cathedrals by Edmund Vale, London: B. T. Batsford Ltd.
Whilst walking along the drover’s lane I think about the energy invested in these walls over the countless years. Some of them have medieval cores. Each wall is laid by hands that stretch across generations.
Like a precious baubled ring, the carving becomes the clawed setting, the movement of light upon it the jewel.
At the start of our work into portraits, I had no idea how this project would impact my understanding of portraiture, or the strong bonds it would form beyond my work, especially with Carole.
It’s been a wonderfully enriching journey. A journey without distance, without miles - a journey that explored the depths that a piece of art has to offer.
Every time I visit a building like this I’m gifted with new ways of seeing,
In our sunlit, beach-combed, selfie-world, it takes a little bravery to move into the shadows.