Momentum: Museum in the Park, Stroud:  8th - 30th October 2016:  10 artists response to the act of walking

 

I am interested in how a sequence of photographs taken while walking can depict both spatial and conceptual journeys. I find that walks can often feel like a journey through ideas as well as through the physical environment and that taking one image on a walk can influence those that follow.

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The sequences of images for ‘Momentum & Walking’ are intended to provide a sense of the places walked through and reflect my interests in walking, the landscape of the Stroud Valleys and the conservation of Cotswold limestone grasslands.

I was inspired by an old souvenir letter card that is shown here - ‘Stroud: Six Views in Black’ (thought to have been printed in the early 1940’s).  I felt that the archaic format of the souvenir letter card would provide an interesting way to present sequences of related images.  I have a large collection of postcards. I often buy them with the intention of sending them, but then find I’m not sure what words to write, so the idea of a purely ‘visual letter’ appeals to me.

 

For interest, I returned to the places photographed in the old Stroud letter card to see what the views look like now.  I like to think that a momentum will continue and that in future years someone else might update these same views.