TO YOU I FOLLOW

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To You I Follow, David Killeen, (22 Oct - 30 Nov 2012, Pavilion Gallery, Royal Geographical Society)
Exhibition: 22 October to Friday 30 November 2012
Talk: 6pm, 28 November 2012
Pavilion Gallery, Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), London, SW7 2AR www.rgs.org

For more details: www.davidkilleen.com

 

Documentary:

David Killeen in conversation with Paul Halliday, Research Associate, Centre for Urban and Community Research (CUCR), Goldsmiths, University of London; Tijmen Veldhuizen, filmmaker and Abbas Nokhasteh, Openvizor.

 

David Killeen, To You I Follow

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This series of photographs by Irish photographer David Killeen is set in Switzerland and based on a journey made by an un-named British couple in 1935, the work documents the retracing of the steps of their journey using the personal account documented in their photo album. The album records the couple’s travels to Switzerland between late August and early September that year and comprises original, caption-dated photographs and an accompanying map that traces their route. Sporadic captions slowly reveal the location of each image and presented Killeen with the intriguing possibility to recreate their journey.

 

In 2010, 75 years after the couple’s trip to Switzerland, another journey was undertaken in an effort to trace these sites and photograph them once again.

 

In a unique approach, Killeen documented the original locations featured in the album and photographs were taken at the same sites, on the exact dates and in the same order, three-quarters of a century later. This anonymous album purchased for less than £10 has provided a distinctive opportunity to illustrate a particular style or method of photography; of recording a past event, similar to the archaeological process of using fragments of information as evidential clues.

 

The retracing of steps in the couples’ journey highlights a multitude of changes that can be observed today in the environmental, historical, and sociological landscape. From climate change to changes in our land-use and communities, the piece invites the observer to reflect and examine key processes in our ever increasingly anthropogenic landscape.

 

About David Killeen www.davidkilleen.com

Born in Dublin in 1984, photographer David Killeen is graduate of Crawford College of Art & Design (BA Hons Fine Art) and the Centre for Urban and Community Research, Goldsmiths, University of London (MA in Photography and Urban Culture). Killeen has created a number of series focusing on journeys and urban environments. His series range from the Alpine region in Central Europe to aerial photography of Southern Florida. Killeen has presented exhibitions and talks in Britain, Ireland and South America. He lives between London and Dublin.

 

Documentary credits
Directed by Tijmen Veldhuizen
Produced by Abbas Nokhasteh, Openvizor