breton dreams, 2016 - ongoing

My father bought the house in 1989. Located on the edge of a small town called Moelan-sur-Mer in southern Brittany, it’s a short drive from the coast. It is my mother’s favourite place and, apart from the relocation of the supermarket about 10 years ago, in 32 years it has hardly changed at all.  It isn’t a glamorous holiday destination - the weather is unreliable and the sea is freezing cold.  But it is a home from home and a place I am intimately attached to - all of us are, my children too. We love swimming in the icy Atlantic sea; rock-pooling; gorging on Breton oysters and mussels and hiking the rocky coastline.

In 2020/21, locked down with our borders shut, travel became something we did in our imaginations.  What before was part of normal life, was then a dream just out of reach. Conceived during the pandemic lockdowns, Breton Dreams is a virtual holiday revisiting this part of northern France though photographs and memories of holiday’s past, shot on 35mm and 120mm black and white film.