The origin of my love of woodland affection is in Southwater, West Sussex in a little garden on Wealdon Close. It is in this garden, one that belonged to my Nan and Grandad until recently, that I have the fondest memories from my childhood. These walks into the woodland were a much needed escape from my reality and although my deep love for the adventure faded somewhat throughout my teens and early twenties, the embers for adventure have always flickered away inside.
I spent much of my time as a child looking forward to the annual visit to Sussex with my mother and sisters. If he wasn’t down the local watching the cricket, my Grandad would spend much of his time out in the garden potting plants and tending to his greenhouse. He wasn’t a man of many words but he would always come alive when me and my sister approached him in the greenhouse. He would wear his trademark smile as he introduced us both to the frogs and other wildlife that liked to shelter underneath the plant pots.
Between searching for frogs and playing board games, we would all head through the picket fence at the bottom of the garden and navigate our way along the path that ran through an old woodland to carry us all the way to the beautiful Southwater Country Park. We would have hours of fun in here playing on the zip-line and what seemed to be a never-ending slide before returning to my Nan & Grandads house through the magical woodland to eat our cheese and crackers before retiring to my favourite caravan to sleep beside that old picket fence.
As an adult, I can often be found wandering alone through the woodland, still in a daydream in much the same way that I was when I was a child.
‘Radiance’
If I’m not photographing or reading a book, I’m usually practicing what the Japanese call ‘shinrin-yoku’, the art of forest bathing. Breathing in the woodland aromas, soaking in the damp, misty air and listening to the tapping of distant woodpeckers makes for a rather therapeutic and meditative experience. The act of forest bathing and woodland photography has been responsible for my making sense of my life and particularly many of the experiences, trials and tribulations that I faced as a child.
Looking for and (sometimes) finding simplicity among a busy environment brings me much happiness and reflects much of the way that I try to live my life. The complex nature of finding a composition among the chaos is what draws me. It reminds me somewhat of the chaos that resides in my own life and the act of finding a photograph has helped me to find the meaning that is somewhere within. I encountered a series of unique challenges as a child, growing up around many changing faces, never knowing how long they might be present in my life and each one of them forcing me to become a different version of myself. I discovered a complete contrast in the woodlands that I’ve visited this year; the characters in each one of these remaining somewhat consistent and allowing me to be myself upon every visit.