One of our Students Joseph Rajeev Rahul, an international student from India who has just finished the MA Photography course (which is a very new course) and made some excellent photographic work. He travelled the UK to make his final project.
Joseph pursued his interest in history and went on a pilgrimage to an isolated location in Orkney to photograph ruins from 2nd World War where soldiers were stationed protecting coastline from enemy invasion. He had quite an arduous solo journey on foot to the location and made some powerful images of these structures in the barren landscape all the while sensing the presence of the soldiers from many decades before.
Here is what the project was about from Joseph Rajeev Rahul, it was about using ruin photography to visually preserve deteriorating ruins that were iconic and important during world war 2 in Orkney islands.
My inspiration to undertake a project on ruin photography of ruins in Orkney stemmed from my fascination with British history and war history. As an Indian, I have always been intrigued by the British Empire and the events that shaped its history especially how the war impacted remote parts of the UK. Orkney Islands, located in the north of Scotland, holds a unique place in British history. It was used as a strategic naval base during both World War I and World War II. I wanted to use photography to showcase and explore this lesser-known part of British history and to document the ruins left behind from those events.
To approach this project, I decided to make a direct impromptu visit to the Orkney Islands. I stayed there for several weeks, getting to know the place and the people who lived there. I immersed myself in the local culture and history, learning about the events that took place on the islands during the two world wars. I visited various sites, including the Italian Chapel, the Churchill Barriers, and the Scapa Flow Naval Base, where I captured images of the ruins and documented the history of each site. Undertaking this project was challenging, as I had not previously experienced a research-based learning style in my studies in India. However, with extensive reading and research, along with the images and onsite information, I was able to create a comprehensive and informative work.
