Faslane

This body of work focuses on the hidden landscape surrounding Faslane naval base on the Gare Loch in Scotland, one of the UKs three naval bases and the home of our Nuclear weapons.

The photographs concentrate on presence in the landscape. It is due to the efforts being made to conceal that the area has such an atmosphere. I am concerned with the contrast between the rugged natural beauty of the area and the extreme violence inherently suggested by the MoD.

My interest in the subject matter springs primarily from a childhood in Northern Ireland, where I was instinctively aware of not only the presence of the military but also paramilitary forces. I became aware of clues or signals in the landscape and the underlying implications that go with them. Perhaps that is why I recognised so readily, when visiting the area numerous times as a child, the hidden presence, under the skin of foliage, water and rocks. The presence is of something unknown in the landscape, in this case the MoD.

There are indicators in the images and yet they have a sense of something hidden. The project intends to convey to the viewer the feeling one has walking in the fields around Faslane. To the untrained eye the landscape is fairly unremarkable, no different to the surrounding Scottish hills. Yet unknown to most the mountains are hollow, filled with arms and the landscape is filled with MoD markers, fuel tanks, barracks and surveillance equipment.