Research News 27, Winter 2010/11 - University of Brighton - Faculty ...

Emerging
Landscapes
by Fergus
Heron
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Fergus Heron, Senior Lecturer in Photography, School of Arts and
Media undertook recent practice based research as part of the first
round of sabbaticals. As part of his research Heron produced a series
of Shopping Centre Photographs. This series is part of a wider research
project that forms an extended inquiry towards new ways of seeing
connections, discontinuities and tensions between the traditional
and the modern through the genre of landscape and the depiction of
architecture and interiors.
The series Shopping Centre Photographs depicts everyday, local
commercial spaces where globally produced goods are displayed,
desired and consumed. They propose a way of seeing modern interior
urban spaces as historical and raise questions about the increasingly
complex distinction between public and private urban space.
Produced as an ongoing, long-term project, the series both
documents and constructs comparative views of depopulated interiors
of shopping centres throughout England. The subjects range from the
cities of London, Manchester and Derby to the towns and villages
of Greenhithe, Tunbridge Wells and Woking. From a central elevated
viewpoint in each space, single and paired pictures are systematically
made with a large format camera showing structural and decorative