In a Lonely Place

James Deegan

James Deegan on ‘In a Lonely Place’

Although I enjoy engaging with my subjects, when shooting portraits, I find that living on a peninsular offers a rich and varied visual experience when it comes to landscape. So, for this six shot assignment I decided to get out of my comfort zone and shoot places, not people.

Whether dawdling in the Victorian squares or walking down by the coast or along the concrete banks of the River Mersey, I find inspiration flows from these places surrounded by water. All the male members of my family, apart from myself, have strong associations with shipbuilding, the docks, and the sea. As an artist, I am also drawn to these places, where the ghosts of our shipping past still linger in the docks and water.

All these images were shot on The Wirral Peninsular, Merseyside, and I felt black and white fitted perfectly with the austere structures I found and my mood around the time of ‘lockdowns’, during the Covid pandemic, when the majority of these lonely images were taken — deliberately stark, empty, bereft of people, heavy with absence yet full of fleeting memories.