Andrew Parker

Artist statement

Concepts
As a landscape photographer based in Glastonbury I tend to look for subject matter that eschews traditional ideas around what constitutes a worthwhile landscape photograph. I am attracted to liminal zones that lie somewhere between notions of urban and rural or vernacular architecture that has a short shelf life before social or technological change wipes it from the landscape - consigning it to a largely forgotten past.

Inspired by the work of Ed Ruscha I have recently been photographing rural petrol garages that were once ubiquitous in the British landscape but not appreciated in the same way as some of their American counterparts - regarded as necessary eyesores rather than an inherent part of car culture. The portfolio consists of twenty six filling stations, photographed in the south west of England and south Wales, that are all independent of the supermarkets that now dominate fuel sales.

Change is one element of my work which tends to draw me towards a landscape that isn't easily categorised. A landscape of buddliea, unamed ponds, business parks, industrial estates, retail parks and inhospitable road networks. World events and hysteria over security in our city centres has pushed photographers to the margins whilst the worn out hackneyed imagery of rural England is a natural counterpoint to my work.

Influences
Paul Graham, Lewis Baltz, Lee Friedlander, John Davies, John Gossage, Gabriele Basilico, Jeff Brouws, Ed Ruscha, Stephen Shore.

Career path
1994 Cert Ed, SCAT, Taunton, Somerset 1990 HND, Documentary Photography, Gwent College, Newport, Gwent