Martin Cregg Photography

Suspended State (2009 - )

If ‘Midlands’ was about construction, then ‘Suspended State’ is about that construction - factories, industrial estates, housing estates which have been built (or in some cases ‘almost’ built), left in a state of abandonment. These spaces have an aura of hopelessness and desolation. They are testament to the economic times in which we live - an era of uncertainty, despondency and relinquished pursuits.

What is explored is the anonymity of the man-made, abandoned and neglected environment. The images reference spatial histories - topographical details of ‘new ruins’ and mute residues of recent economic and social disorder. The work also plays with a sense of scale - reflecting my ever-changing approach to representing an ever-changing landscape.

While the underlying context to the work is economic, social and historical, it also signifies the eternal cycle of construction and destruction. Depicting the earth as almost excavation - where organic cycles are disrupted by society and then return. The shattered surfaces and forms of the landscape can signify the discontinuities of recent history - the landscape in a suspended state, anxiously awaiting a time of stability.

Presented here is a selection of a broader body of work.