Photograd exhibition catalogue

Rachael Bint - Coventry University, 2015 www.rachaelbint.com Photographs of Friston Forest Friston Forest is a largely beech plantation situated within the South Downs National Park. The site is owned by South East Water and predominantly managed by the Forestry Commission. Land was let on a 999-year lease to the Forestry Commission who started planting the forest in 1926.

Although it may appear, the site is not ancient or semi-natural.

Photographs of Friston Forest considers an area of managed landscape. The pictures look overgrown and uncultivated, casting dense shade on the understory. These photographs focus on a desolate site of dense woodland. They suggest how nature has the innate disposition to disregard the enforcement of regulation and control. My journey follows no linear narrative; I made the work by walking through the forest, reading the landscape and translating my experiences. Drawn towards nature, and man’s intervention upon it, the series extracts elements of managed wilderness that manage to feel wild.