Through my previous research and based upon my own personal experience of such places, I have become interested in structures designed specifically for shelter from conflict or threat.
Throughout this project I will concentrate on nuclear bunkers built during the Cold War, in particular the decommissioned military facility based at Hack Green in Nantwitch, Cheshire. I intend for the images produced to explore the emotional impact of this confined space and to dwell upon the poignancy of such a purpose-built environment, designed exclusively for the survival of its inhabitants, however futile such an existence may be, post-disaster and devastation. I believe that for these reasons, the bunkers have a direct relationship with Psychogeography. It is this special and unusual relationship that I will try to convey through this project.
The definition of the term Psychogeography penned by Guy Debord (explained in his Introduction to a Critique of Urban Geography, 1955) lends itself to many situations. The effects that everyday environments have on our emotions and behaviour can sometimes feel heightened or more significant in specific places. I hope to be able to continue to explore this theme and these feelings brought about by different locations through a photographic body of work inspired by Debord’s definition of Psychogeography.
The photographs will act as a document or record of such places and the historical role they have played in our past. Though, hopefully, this body of work will also capture the atmospheric qualities of the environment and the distinctly eerie and unnerving tone ever-present in the shelter. The low-key lighting provided by the artificial lamplight, used throughout the facility, will create a sense of claustrophobia and invite the viewer to imagine struggling to survive such atrocities, initiated by advances in science made over 60 years ago as well as the age-old influence of man’s hunger for power and control.
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