Finding Fangorn

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Finding Fangorn.

Finding Fangorn started with a search to find new outdoor places to visit and discover with my son, Hugo. It draws on this experience of actively looking for what is left of old woodland spaces within Liverpool to explore and act out a child’s make-believe scenarios. Fangorn as in Tolkien's 'Fangorn Forest' is a fantasy place and what is left of these woodland spaces are used by many to escape from the urbanisation that surrounds them through a suggestion of wilderness. Hugo suffers from Epilepsy with developmental delay. Whilst Finding Fangorn explores photography’s innate ability to document experiences and places, as the father of a disabled child, it is also through exploration, discovery and imaginative play, about finding Hugo.

The project currently concentrates on fourteen of these woods within Metropolitan Liverpool. Whilst the heart of the project is photographing Hugo at play, it also extends to documenting the spaces themselves and the visual relationship they have with their urban surroundings. Capturing the paradoxes and juxtapositions as we recognise their importance then continually challenge their existence.

David Lockwood

Finding Fangorn has been developed in partnership with 'The Mersey Forest' and the Tree Charter Campaign, which is led by the Woodland Trust - www.treecharter.uk. The Charter for Trees, Woods and People will guide policy and practice and set out the rights and responsibilities of the people of the UK to their trees. It will launch on the 6th November, the 800th anniversary of the 1217 Charter of the Forest. The new Tree Charter will draw its strength from the hundreds of thousands of people across the UK that sign it in 2017.

The project will also be on display from the 26th October to 26th November 2017 at the Open Eye Gallery, Mann Island, Liverpool Waterfront openeye.org.uk/whatson/finding-fangorn/ and features as part of the talks in the 'Trees, Woods and People' event on the 6th November 2017 at the Open Eye Gallery - openeye.org.uk/whatson/woods-trees-people/

www.treecharter.uk/sign

www.treecharter.uk/2017/05/01/finding-fangorn/

About - David Lockwood