Annabelle Nicoll
'We don’t see things as they are, but rather as we are' Anais Nin
Annabelle Nicoll uses photography to help express an underlying quality of a place yet at the same time mirroring her own sub-conscious. Spending long periods of time in a location, the snowy waste-lands of Finland being a favourite destination, allows her to develop a deeper emotional connection to the subject. The initial recording is an intuitive experience, the silence in such a landscape making her keenly aware of how random thoughts can come in and bombard the mind, interfering with the senses and which need to be quietened before she can truly engage with the environment.
It is often through editing the photographs during post-production that questions and insights come to surface, informing decisions at this stage and helping her to gain a deeper understanding of herself through her work which is then mirrored back through the images. There is a meditative quality in Nicoll’s work which captures the essence of a moment, that keeps you looking although you have already seen.
