An International Archive
Beauty can lurk in strange places, and I find myself drawn to landscapes which suggest ambiguity, emptiness, and the spiritually untidy. On the edges of the developed West, I seek backdrops to stories and dreams — vague suggestions of the earth as a temporary gesture. They are as close to nowhere as I can get.
— Steve Davis, Olympia, Washington, USA
Practice examines how the concept of place has moved far beyond a geometrical notion. Place can now offer us gifts of visual and textual metaphor to understand unconscious ideas about our sense of self and to deepen our understanding of our relationship with the external world. My work explores the nature of place, and asks whether there is more to place than a geographical location. It attempts to discover the role that transience, presence and memory play in this formation of place and the impact on our sense of self.
— Will Davis, Wivenhoe, United Kingdom
My recent work explores the city as an image of nature tamed with a particular focus on the Chicago River and Chicago’s park system. Very little, if anything, in Chicago can be described as natural at this point, and even that which pretends to represent nature is far removed from its original state: our river has been reversed and many of our lakefront parks are built on century-old landfill. I try to emphasize the artificiality of Chicago’s natural landscapes by shooting only at night, when the light sources are myriad and harder to discern.
— Zane Davis, Chicago, USA