Walk In The Woods /
Walk in the Woods traces a formative moment of transition in my childhood. At ten years old, my family moved from the bustling city streets of Glasgow to the quiet expanse of the Ayrshire countryside — a dramatic shift from the familiar to the unknown.
Suddenly surrounded by open fields and dense forests, I encountered a world deeper and older than anything I had known. I vividly remember my first journey into Lanfine Woods with newly made friends — a place they navigated with ease while I stumbled behind, wary of the towering trees, the unfamiliar sounds, and the presence of something unseen that seemed to inhabit the air itself.
The forests I photograph now are not Lanfine Woods themselves, yet they carry the same emotional charge — shaped by the memory of that first encounter with the unknown. That early mixture of fear, awe, and curiosity never left me.
Through this work, I return to those first impressions — the sense that the forest was alive, watchful, and greater than me. These images become a way to explore how the landscape shapes us, and how mystery can take hold long before understanding. I’m fascinated by the reactions the photographs provoke: Do others find them sinister, ethereal, magical, or calming?
Perhaps the answer lies somewhere between those feelings — in the space where childhood emotions and the natural world converge.
