Micro-scapes was a project undertaken over a 14-week period in collaboration with Space Studios in London and Colchester and as part of their Collaborative Residency Program where artists are paired together. I was paired with Norwich based artist Holly Sandiford (Instagram: @holly.sandiford}. With a shared interest in alternative landscape we decided our project would take a look at some local sites of scientific interest (SSSI’s). I created a Photographic Topographical Survey of each area highlighting areas of geological and biological separation and change . Holly used soil samples from each site to cultivate micro-landscapes in Petri dishes and create Windogradsky Columns which were then photographed. Our joint effort was compiled into a video which uses sound samples from each site as a soundtrack.
Further information on this and the other projects that were showcased in Space Studios Collaborative Residency can be found at:
https://digitalart.spacestudios.org.uk/residencies/andrew-john-fergus-and-holly-sandiford/
While the entire country was in lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic I was able to set about creating a short series of photographs that focused on peoples activities within their own homes. These activities not only became part of our everyday routines but also became a method of helping us deal with the isolation and separation that became the standard practice of these times. The enforced distancing requirements necessitated a separation between myself and my subjects as the windows in their homes framed peoples lives as we all waited for the ‘all clear’ to restart our lives as normal.
Homeless charity Crisis estimate that there were a minimum 200,000 people facing homelessness in England alone in 2020. This was, of course, one of the most difficult periods in recent history in which the world struggled with the Covid-19 pandemic and whilst the majority of us were ‘locked down’ within our own family and friend bubbles, there were those who had no home to go to and had no shelter from the metaphorical storm. During this period, I noticed an increase in the numbers of homeless on the streets in my home city of Chelmsford and decided to undertake a project in which I could highlight some of the conditions and spaces that were being used to sleep and ‘set up home’. These photos were taken by a mix of my Canon DSLR and the camera on my android phone but seek to capture the spaces devoid of their inhabitants as means of highlighting their position of being missing from the world and without a home.
The development and construction upon land occurs all around us and at an ever-growing pace as populations soar and commercial demands increase. These developments serve as a constant reminder of land value and ownership as a historical measure of control is imposed upon us within the designation and ownership of ’free’ land and space. We are guided through cities and towns by signs and symbols that dictate our directions, permissions and restrictions around both urban and sub-urban areas. Roman author and architect Vitruvius coined the idea that all buildings and architecture should have the three attributes of firmitas, utilitas and venustas which is commonly translated to mean structural stability, appropriate spacial accommodation and attractive appearance. Despite being challenged by architectural devices such as Brutalism, these three terms still stand as the pillars of architecture and can be applied to the very structures and spaces that surround our every day lives. With these ideas in mind I sought to seek out spaces which encompassed the structural and spacial gestures, both natural and man-made, that govern our movements and make clear our history. The chosen sites are all within Essex but they also exist as a blueprint of the sub-conscious structural world which sits in a constant state of development and change.
According to WHO (The World Health Organisation) close to 800,000 people a year commit suicide. Whilst always a tragedy, there is something more deeply felt when that death is attributed to that of a young person, a child. Of 15-19 year olds suicide is the third leading cause of death. Of course many links have been made between suicide and mental disorders but there can be many contributing factors linked including health, experience, discrimination and moments of crisis. All of these reasons come packed with their own stigmas but it cannot be lost or ignored that a life is extinguished in torment, anger and sadness. Between 2017-2019 in Essex alone there were 501 cases of suicide giving the area a suicide rate of 13 per 100,000 people, a number far too high, and these numbers are all to often contributed to be the younger generation. By researching local news stories I was able to pin-point a few of the locations in which younger people had chosen to end their life and so sought to undertake a kind of pilgrimage to photograph the spaces at the chosen time of sunset, a symbolic gesture towards the extinguishing of light. The final photos seek to highlight the secret history of these spaces in relation to the sombre event that occurred there.
In 2018 I became interested in narrative within imagery and specifically how a narrative can be changed depending on the input of various artistic devices such as colour and sound. With these thoughts in mind I sought to create scenes using spaces which I felt had an innate narrative embedded within them. I then injected coloured light, and later sound, to see how that changed the way in which the viewer built their narrative from the scene based upon their own personal reactions and developments attuned from the features of the photograph. I combined the visuals with sounds, meant to have a sense of the uncanny, in order to further adjust the viewers derived narrative.
In 2017 it was reported that approximately 43% of the British public had enjoyed sex in a public place. Whilst no crime is officially attached to the practice of sex in public there are illegal aspects such as public indecency which actually makes the practice the second most commonly committed crime in the UK. Whether alone, in couples, or in groups, the practice has become known by the terms ‘Dogging’ (hetrosexual) and ‘Cruising’ (homosexual). Dogging specifically is a term coined , it is believed, for the dog walkers who come across the amorous activities. Dogging is by no means an activity exclusive to Britain and has a growing following around the world in countries such as Canada, the US, Australia, Brazil and within Scandinavia, however, it is in the UK and specifically Essex that the practice is most rife, with Essex even being named the dogging capital of the world. Using various news articles and listings found within local news reports and on dedicated dogging websites I was able to locate a large number of the sites used for Dogging in Essex and so traveled to them in the hope of finding evidence of the activities that were supposedly occurring there. Within these often remote and secluded spaces I found ‘sexual debris’; markers of activity; signals of intent that were strewn upon bushes and within hidden clearings. Photographing these found scenes at night with use of a flash I seek to ‘expose’ the practice and ask the viewer to consider the moral implications, the environmental impact, and the raw sexual freedom that are attached to the practice.
This series of photographs was the first I ever created. Taken a year before I embarked on my BA (hons) in Photography, I created it with a simple premise in mind, that, given the right circumstances, everyone was capable of a ‘monstrous’ or darker side of their own personality and that recognising this within ourselves is fundamental to allowing us to become the best possible versions of our characters. These portraits were created with help from fellow students at South Essex Collage, as well as students from a Special Effects Make-Up class, which helped me visualise these ‘monsters’ by drawing on creatures from popular myth, legends and story. The portraits seeks to embody a recognised fear that we hold within ourselves and towards others, both consciously and sub-consciously.