The Edge of Ruin

Whilst the more obvious signs of our industrial legacy, the edifices of our industrial past, unless purposefully preserved for heritage, crumble into the landscape on which they were set or are erased by us, it is in the physical landscapes themselves that the lasting impression of this past remains.

As I walked around these first sites, camera still firmly in my bag, what became immediately apparent to me was that I needed to look past the remaining edifices, these buildings constructed by men, and instead focus on the physical landscape itself on which industry had left its everlasting impression, whilst avoiding the cliches of nostalgia and romanticism.

A crevice carved out of the hills in the Pennines, a series of ridges found on a west facing slope of a Tor in Dartmoor, these are the shadows of our industrial past, the silent markers for future generations to be guided by.