“When the Soul wants to experience something she throws out an image in front of her and then steps into it.” Meister Eckhart

House Studies, an ongoing series of un-staged images, first came about when we moved home last March. Just days before the first national lockdown we moved to a remote setting in Kent. Not far from where I grew up, I already had memories of these lanes and how dark and cold the winters could get. This bought an uncanniness about the place; everything appeared enchanting to me, from the formation of dead tree structures, the shape of a new interior, the hooting of owls at dusk, and the transformation of light from day to night.
 
These experiences coincided with my discovery of Jung’s shadow work, which, given the long, early days of lockdown and extended time alone, gave me plenty to pick-over. Running parallel to my inner thoughts and feelings, the images developed over the months and seasons ahead - my personal inventory began to synchronise in some way with my surroundings. What started out as the documentation of a new physical space slowly became more about the psychological one. Time and again I would stubble across the perfect photographic manifestation, sign or symbol. This can be seen in images such as Enter, a moon lit portal into the dark, neighbouring woodland and My Chandelier, a giant stalactite found in a dilapidated outbuilding. Lit with a torch and casting a defined, heavy shadow, it was a discovery that was all at once both terrifying and beautiful.
 
All of the images in the series were made using my iPhone, the freedom of this small, handheld device allowed me to photograph the images as they appeared, without any planning or reconstruction – they were just all around me and I photographed them.

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Rachel Letchford

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