Between the early 1970's and mid 1980's large housing estates were built in Ainsdale near Southport. The houses were built on the seaward side of the village on areas which were originally sand dunes. All were detached houses and bungalows and, although much conformity existed, small building companies and individuals were able to introduce architectural differences. My Father bought a plot of land and realised his ambition to self-build a house on one of these estates. I started to photograph what essentially was my home environment after I had completed my degree at Manchester Polytechnic.
I worked on the project over several years and the methods I used changed to reflect my responses to the subject. At first I was struck by the surreal qualities of the Estates and made the first set very dark and with high contrast. I moved on from this mannered approach and photographed under flat light conditions in Set 2. I then made more topographical views using a 5x4 camera. The work was edited and divided into five "sets" to give the work a structured form.
All five Sets were published as five volume box set by Cafe Royal Books (available on our Photodeck web site) and a selection from Set 4 ( curated by Isabelle Bonnet) were exhibited at Les Recontres d'Arles and The Institut Pour La Photographie in Lille during 2019. This selection was also included in the book "Home Sweet Home" published by Textuel, 2019.