John Darwell - Not Starting From Here

John Darwell is an independent photographer working with museums and galleries on projects that reflect his interest in social and industrial change and his concern for the environment. His work has been exhibited, and published, widely both nationally and internationally, including exhibitions in London, Amsterdam, the USA, Mexico, South America and the Canary Islands, and is featured in a number of important collections including the Victoria & Albert Museum, London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. He has had seven books of his photographs published, including in 2007 a major study of the 2001 Uk Foot and Mouth epidemic entitled ‘Dark Days’, (Dewi Lewis Publishing); ‘Committed to Memory’ at 25 year retrospective on his work to coincide with exhibition of the same name at Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery, Carlisle in May-July 2007 and 'Legacy' (2001 Dewi Lewis) a view inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.

"This work is a journey of exploration and encounters along the Cumbria coastline (home of the Lake district) in the most north western county in England. The work (all images produced on 6x7 format) travels from the northerly point of the coast to the counties' southerly most point. The only limitation I set myself being that whenever I took a photograph, I had to be able to see the sea somewhere within my field of view. This region is rich in post industrial history and notorious for being the home of the Sellafield Nuclear Reprocessing Plant. My aim was to produce a personal journey to help me better understand my feelings for this stretch of coastline within the county I had made my home."