“A beautiful subject can be the object of rueful feelings, because it has aged or decayed or no longer exists. All photographs are memento mori. To take a photograph is to participate in another person's (or thing's) mortality, vulnerability, mutability.” (Susan Sontag, Melancholy Objects, On Photography)

Image captures a yellow smiley face bouncy ball contained in a plastic capsule
Untitled 15, limited print
Image captures a miniature plastic toy mermaid with a green glittered tail and garish blonde hair.
Untitled 13, limited print

Pleasureland documents the condition of seaside resorts, amusements and arcades in Scotland and England. The photographic series records the decline of once loved sites, which now consist of empty spaces and faded, disillusioned atmospheres. I journeyed into the liminal spaces and the otherworldly landscapes I have always remembered from childhood: the saturated colours, the plastic prizes and the dreamlike haze over it all. Motivated by sadness and loss, I travelled into childhood. It was a habitual, cathartic experience. I became fascinated by the joyful, fantastical objects around me, and mourned for the places which lie empty and unloved on our shorelines.

 

Nostalgia is built into seaside resorts, the excitement, the vibrant colours and the joy of being small in a vast world. They paint a red-yellow-blue veil over it all. On occasion, the veil falls and exposes worn carpets, tired faces and the structures which hold the world together. Somehow both ephemeral and eternal, objects are assembled and dismantled over and over, replaced, repainted, updated, new coins removed from old machines; everything about to cave in all at once, but somehow remains anchored in place. People return over and over, new things are built over old skeletons, a never-ending cycle. 

 

The spaces I have captured reflect our social conditions, the repetition, the excess, the materialism, and foremost the desire to escape from real life. We have created escapist spaces, both fantastical and ominous, strange social landscapes isolated from the real world. Escapism is at the heart of it all, the creation of Pleasureland was a sacred experience, it allowed me an escape from real life. I have found solace in the return to childhood. Now Pleasureland has entered reality, it is not mine anymore. I hope others can find happiness in the images I’ve come to love.

The image captures a building with large orange print which reads PLEASURELAND in large letters.
Untitled 5, limited print
Image captures in interior of a yellow change machine in an arcade. The pennies create reflective surfaces
Untitled 10, limited print
Image captures multiple, repeated ice cream cones stacked on a cafe counter
Untitled 8, limited print
The image captures a large illuminated arcade sign which reads MONEY MONEY MONEY in red and black print
Untitled 16, limited print
The image captures a collection of blue and pink candy floss in plastic bags
Untitled 7, limited print
Image captures a red, yellow and blue helter-skelter slide bathed in sunlight
Untitled 10, limited print
The image captures the an arcade machine with golden egg forms. The image has a turquoise and gold hue
Untitled 3, limited print
Image captures a penny machine in a funfair. There are multiple reflections of neon funfair rides which acts as a portal to another world.
Untitled 7, limited print
Image captures a building in decline, and print which reads PARADISE.
Untitled 2, limited print
The image captures the top of an arcade change machine which multiple, repetitive stacked penny tubs with graphic cartoons and shapes.
Untitled 6, limited print
The image captures a red and yellow arcade machine with dispensed tickets on the floor
Untitled 1, limited print
Image captures a orange plastic arcade toy spinner
Untitled 14, limited print
Image captures a miniature green toy car, won from an arcade
Untitled 15, limited print
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Landscapes
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Photography - BA (Hons)
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