At the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine I was shocked by the imagery of dead bodies on the news. I imagined what it would be like to step outside my front door and step over corpses in London. I started photographing local volunteers and neighbours as if they were such victims. I was interested in the downward gaze, that we rarely see in galleries. After several months complacency seemed to set in and the deaths in our newsfeed became “part of the furniture”. Social media drip feeding them into our collective consciousness and yet we can easily dismiss them as they not in our physical reality, preferring perhaps the comfort of our living rooms and a cuppa and doilee.

I strive to use repurposed and recycled items in my work, and when I came across these tables in a charity shop the series sprang to life. I also made piles of ash and debris to frame some of my darkroom prints. It was interesting to observe public reaction as gallery visitors looked downward.

(images to be updated Nov.24)