'testimonio' - isometric structures



Questions asked through a lens attract unexpected answers - one view for another perhaps. Often the structure I am photographing, and they are nearly always structures, looks back at me because normally it would not attract enough attention to be photographed. These structures are located on the edges of communities where I believe they also exist along the edges of collective memories. Through the camera I feel the space between the subject and myself alternate - between distance to and silence from - both are physical but silence encourages questions.



These days people rarely find their way into my compositions, they will talk to me whilst I am working - a broken silence and a welcome collaboration - but within the image they remain absent. Sometimes a stranger will make a detour in order to tell me a story - “this was an important building,” they might say, “it belonged to the village behind you, many died here” - the message and the messenger become entwined with the work - I will take a photograph from which we both can never escape.



Simon Head - August 2010