Footnote

The project begins with a tragedy - two 14-year-old boys found unconscious at the bottom of a pool while on a council-run fun day. In a state of detachment consistent with ten years spent as a forensic photographer where a working day may including visiting multiple scenes of crime, we meander back and forth across the suburban cityscape in search of meaning, to find 'shifting realities' amongst the bay-windowed houses and bedecked shopping malls synonymous with the suburbs. Reflecting on the psychological scaring left by repeated viewings of tragic events, the pictures re-visit certain unremarkable sites over a period of months searching for clues - a form of visual catharsis and, perhaps, of exorcism. At the same time, bulldozers and jackhammers echo the grief felt by bereaved families. As the pool building is leveled, so disappears the last physical remains of a site of tragedy and neglect. The demolition is at the behest of the relentless drive for progress and profit. New beginnings offer a chance to 'move on' and 're-assess', terminology which provides little respite from feelings of betrayal and loss. Marginalised memories linger on the edge of consciousness, relegated to a footnote in the timeline of life.