Patina

Noun: a gloss or sheen on a surface resulting from age or polishing

In this project, I have created images of the Royal Pavilion in Brighton to represent a critical view of Western society. Setting it in the context of the Empire serves to remind us from where it all arose. I have visualised this through fragmentation and attention to the overlooked, whilst maintaining a sense of opulence.

Making sense of the world that we live in, its people and histories is, to a varying degree, everyone’s concern. However, the stories we are told and the myths we create often overlook the painful realities of many people’s lives, and the cruel and traumatic ways in which we came to enjoy the comforts of 21st-century life, through empire, slavery and more recently through debt.

The Royal Pavilion, though only a museum, links us indexically to our past and empire, through its objects and architecture.

This project forms the final submission for the MA Photography course at the University of Brighton