Evocation

This research has evolved as a photographic response to the letters and photographs of Robert Perceval-Maxwell a Colonel in the 36th Ulster Division in WW1.His letters from the trenches refer, not primarily to the conflict, but to the administration and daily practical tasks concerning the farm estate in County Down, even though they are obviously written under the most harrowing and traumatic conditions of the British Expeditionary Force in France’s Western Front. One can begin to perceive parallels between life as an officer in the British army and life as a landowner and estate manager in Ireland. The research has been made as an inquiry into Maxwell’s geographical and mental displacement. I chose not to show the obvious relics and artifacts of the conflict but wanted to make photographs which echoed the simplicity and almost lyrical quality of the narratives revealed in the letters and diaries. As the land has healed and obscured the scars of conflict Thiepval Wood has now grown to become very similar to the forests of the Finnebrogue estate and the rolling landscape is not unlike parts of Co. Down. The images of both Ireland and France are purposely untitled so that the visual clues become ambiguous. I want my photographs to occupy a space, between documentation and narrative, and between overt expression and that which is left unsaid.The photographs in this work were made in the Somme and Thiepval areas of France and on the Finnebrogue Estate and the surrounding location in Ireland. The texts are from Perceval-Maxwell’s letters, the Finnebrogue Estate Manager’s journal, War Diaries of 13th RIR and Falls’ ‘History of the 36th Ulster Division’.‘Evocation’ Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw.