From the Achieves
a body of work
It began with the mundane - my daily commute to campus, from 2017 to 2021. I became absorbed in the nothingness of those moments: the strangers, the scenery, the in-between. What started as casual documentation quickly became more reflective. I realised I wasn’t just observing, I was participating. A voyeur turned archivist.
Looking through old archives - though perhaps young is the more honest word; I found these images taken between 2017 and 2019, during my first two years living in CBD Pretoria, South Africa. At the time I struggled to place meaning around them. What could I possibly say when I understood so little about the value of shared perception? My own was blurred by naivety, ego and a stubborn kind of idealism. Maybe it still is.
For years, the prints sat tucked away, boxed and forgotten. But now, I find myself returning, not necessarily to why I took them but to what I can isolate from them now.
What do these colours, textures and fleeting moments mean to me today? Why do they feel more important now than they did back then?
During my time at Arts University Plymouth, I began to understand the emotional weight colour can carry - especially in relation to memory, the familiar and the idea of home. It’s something I may have once dismissed, but now I’m learning to sit with it.
This body of work isn’t about technicals. It’s about experience. About what we overlook, what we feel without realising and the images that grow heavier with time. Maybe as you scroll through them, something will feel familiar to you too.
