John Davies
background
John Davies's formative years were spent living in both
coal mining and farming communities. As a photographer, he became fascinated
and excited by the rural landscape during his visits to the west coast
of Ireland in the mid 1970's. This work focused on the forces of nature
and the interaction between sky and land. He continued this exploration
within the British Isles until 1981 when he started to document the urbanised
landscape to "map-out" the topography of the city of Sheffield.
He continued to work in England and Wales, researching
and investigating the impact of industrialisation on shaping the urban
environment. His work concentrated on the areas of coal mining, textiles,
steel, quarrying, railways and shipping along with the town and cities
associated with these industries. These exhibition projects were mostly
in partnership with photography galleries and museums.
During the later 1980's and increasingly during the 1990's
he has spent much of his time working on numerous landscape and urbanisation
projects throughout Europe - especially in France, Italy, Spain, Holland,
Belgium and Portugal, as well as Germany, Switzerland and Austria. In
all these commissions the artist was invited by a variety of private and
public organisations because of his reputation for excellence. This work
ranged from landscape, environmental to architectural projects for photographic
festivals to private galleries. However, the majority of this work was
funded through museums and art galleries and from local and central government.
For over two decades he has been given free access to investigate
and explore a range of communities from major industrial cities to small
farming villages. The exposure to a wide variety of urban, industrial
and rural landscapes, as well as economic, political and cultural environments,
has helped John Davies form a broad appreciation and understanding of
the value of urbanisation. He has tried to remain objective in his documentary
work but a theme that has become increasingly important to him is to question
as well as celebrate our collective responsibility in shaping the environments
in which we live.
Images may not be reproduced in any form or by any means
without the permission of John Davies
Photo and material Copyright © John Davies 1976
- 2004. All rights reserved |
