Solvitur Ambulando: It Is Solved by Walking by Kenneth Shaw
Kenneth Shaw presents photographs taken while walking two circular routes around London – the London Outer Orbital Path and then, closer in, the Capital Ring – alongside shots from family life, with his project reflecting on the loss of his own dad shortly after he became a parent himself.
Images credit: Kenneth Shaw
Embarking on the MA Photography Practice as a parent to young twins, Kenneth knew he would need a structure that allowed him to manage the work around family life. He found that, as a lifelong keen walker, walking the London Outer Orbital Path provided this 鈥� he could walk one of its sections per week, photographing it, and bring the images in to a critique before taking the feedback on board and heading out to photograph the next section the following week.
My dad died six months after my twin sons were born. What I didn't expect was how much the walking opened up. It gave me time and space to think, and the work became a way of staying in relation – with my dad, whose camera I was carrying, and with my sons.
Kenneth Shaw, MA Photography Practice
His approach to the walks were to take it slow 鈥� often taking five hours to cover 10km 鈥� photographing what he describes as "the in-between" rather than anywhere in particular. The walking allowed him time to think through an important period of his life, and the photography work was a way of staying close to this. Poignantly, Kenneth finished the Capital Ring on the anniversary of his dad's death 鈥� a coincidence he hadn't planned when he set out the previous September, and only noticed the day before.
At the Degree Show, two Kodak slide projectors form the centrepiece of Kenneth's exhibition. These show photographs of the walks on circular carousels 鈥� echoing the circular nature of the walking itself. Slightly out of sync, this means that the pairings of images on the wall will constantly change, prompting the audience to consider if they speak to each other, or if they don't. He sees the presentation of the images as an invitation to look twice. "If someone leaves wanting to go for a walk, that's plenty," he said.
The photographs come from noticing: something seen at home with the children turning up again out in the landscape. A hill that, looked at again, is a sleeping giant; an old car swallowed by undergrowth that could be a crash-landed spaceship. They're jumping-off points for a story rather than finished statements.
Kenneth Shaw, MA Photography Practice
There are also photo rails with images from family life and a hand-bound book. "The projectors point back to a slower way of sharing pictures, a few people in a room taking time over them, set against the way images live now, as data we mostly glance at and rarely hold," Kenneth reflected.
When considering the audience for his work, Kenneth explained, "I think of the work as made for my sons, perhaps when they're the age I am now. Most work is made for an audience that's present; this one is made for an audience that can't quite receive it yet. In some ways it's a map: not instructions, just a sense that if you ever need to work something out, you could do worse than walk somewhere you don't know and make it an adventure."
Images credit: Kenneth Shaw
Coming to the MA from a background in design, with the last decade spent working in digital design, Kenneth applied skills gained from building pattern libraries to his approach to photography. He felt that when on the walks, his eyes would be drawn to certain things, which he would notice recurring in the landscape, like a pattern.
"The project wouldn't exist in this form without the technical team at Goldsmiths, who've been generous with their time: help with bookbinding, camera repair, film stock, the slide transfer and getting the projectors set up," Kenneth explained. He added, "My tutors and the rest of my cohort have shaped it too, through critique."