Places of Interest and Little Importance

I have been told that these are depressing images. They are also images of a depression - an illness that affected me during the years covered in this book.


At the time that these images were made, I didn't know that I was becoming ill, even less that I was ill, although many of the classic triggers and symptoms of depression were all there in abundance. Nor did I see the significance of what I was choosing to photograph. It is undeniable, however, that the editing process which a photographer's eye and brain goes through when pointing a camera in this direction or that, when including or excluding a particular subject matter in the viewfinder, is a reflection of their interests and preoccupations at that period in their lives.


My original explanation was that they were simply a series of London landscapes and that "very little will be recognised in the way that more familiar buildings and landmarks normally identify a capital city to both its inhabitants and visitors".


Now that I am well again, I realise that, during this period, I didn't recognise either a great deal about my own personal landscape or that the subject matter that I was making images from, was actually very important - for me.


‘Places of Interest and Little Importance’ is a visual account of my depression. As a photographer, I believe that during this period, 1999 to 2005, I made images that stemmed from my illness, that are maybe, from my own individual experience of it, about the illness of depression, albeit that I was not aware of these actions at the time.