I am not a landscape photographer. I suppose if there’s anything photographic I can do competently it’s take photographs of people – I like a mug shot, me.

 

Ballanbroach

 

It’s a real honour to be asked by ITO to show you something, but I have no landscape series, no project to readily share. Since the late nineties, I’ve been carrying a pocket camera and shooting 35mm positive film when the notion hits and the opportunity arises, not without purpose, but without definitive reason other than that deep seated need which we all share. The work accumulated and has languished as zeros and ones; I looked back and the images which feel right relate to my practice as an architect – I seem to be obsessing over points or places of beginning or entering, starting points, brinks and edges. So, here you are, ‘Threshold’. These are the scans, so you can see just what the film and I saw through the lens.

 

Sarclet

 

This series is for Charlie and Rose, as while making this work I was most likely carrying one or the other strapped to my chest.

Threshold series of images by Alastair Cook

ABOUT ALASTAIR COOK

Alastair works predominantly with video and photography to explore communities undergoing significant transformation and to consider the relationship between individuals and the landscapes they occupy. He is currently the artist in residence at Kaunas Photography Gallery, Lithuania, supported by Street Level Photoworks, Glasgow.

Alastair’s exhibition ‘McArthur’s Store‘, a series of wet plate collodion portraits and contextual work with the fishermen of Dunbar, opens at Dunbar Town House on Friday 5th May 2017 for four weeks prior to touring.

Alastair is the founder of Documenting Britain, driven by his desire to document these British Isles. He is also the director of the international poetry-film festival, Filmpoem, and a member of the curatorial group Fèis

You can contact and view more of Alastair’s work through his website and other online presence

Website: alastaircook.com

Twitter: @alastaircook

CREDITS

Unless otherwise stated, all words and images in this article are © Alastair Cook

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