MG_6201 (2024) explores Hughes’s journey and memory on the Philosopher’s Walk in Kyoto, Japan. The corruption of the image data has created a great layering of texture within the photograph, while the image is merged with another image. This, therefore, allows the viewer to see multiple elements within one region, which moves the viewer’s eye around to examine every small detail of the work.
Since the photograph is based on the Philosopher’s Walk, which implicates a meditative quality as it brings together nature and reflection. The composition, made from three photographs, thus helps to replicate the path and add the movement one would be doing on the path into the image.
IMG_1544MC.590.2—Silence of Protest II (2024), like the previous work, uses the glitching of the image, which allows the peacefulness of the mountainscape to be disrupted by the understanding of a farmers’ protest happening within the same region. The solitude of the mountain is no longer seen as the shadows are intense and dominate the image. The greens and reds in these shades do not seem calming which allow the glitches to disrupt the scene which could potentially signify the anger of the farmers.
Understandably, digitising our lives allows us to discover events in an area we may not have known. By digitally corrupting the photograph, it helps to turn the mountain into a viewer of the farmer’s protests; despite being hours away- the digitization has brought it closer. Therefore, we could discern that, through the title ‘silence of protest’, this silence not only describes the mountain’s solitude and peacefulness but also the struggles or protests that get overlooked.
_MG_808083_29 (2024) appears to be a memory from the first viewing. The colours are dulled and slightly muted yet the occassional saturated purple and yellows give the photograph life. The photograph’s distorted areas make it feel like it is evolving and changing. This, incidentally, is true within nature as the trees photographed- will also evolve and change over time. Notwithstanding these elements- the work is a commentary on the implications of living within a data-driven society- which, the subject matter, is Tokyo.
Tokyo is a fast-paced city, densely urbanised, and extremely integrated into current technology, which results in a large mass of information in the city’s life. This, therefore, is quite chaotic, which is shown in the glitches in the photograph—the more natural elements are corrupted, yet they have not been entirely changed. Their form survives, yet they have a much more chaotic appearance due to the movements.