A Map Without Words is an investigative study into the land that I’m from. The townland has been home to several generations of my family and I often feel like part of a continuum of people in that place, cyclical and generational histories playing out across a backdrop of the same trees, stones and fields. At the same time, I feel a connection to the landscape that is a physical sensation, rather than related to memory and nostalgia. I'm interested in trying to understand and quantify this intangible, and the limits of science and photography to do so.
My background research has been informed by the "gentleman scientist” naturalist of the 19th & early 20th century and that Victorian/Darwinian obsession of measuring and classifying the world around them (and photography’s role as part of that 'scientific truth'). I see that as rooted in the imperialism and colonialism of the time, and particularly relevant given the location of the work (Northern Ireland.)
All of the places photographed have an inherent value and meaning to me and my family, each one often containing layers of generational memories that are impossible to articulate within the confines of the image and its accompanying archival data. In this way, I'd like to present a project that invites people to think about place and identity, but also the shortcomings of photography and the archive in giving us a complete understanding of a subject.
