Into the Night (2021) is a photography series Sarah started as a direct response to the 2nd Covid lockdown. Unable to travel, she began to notice the natural spaces closer to home. A Grass verge at the side of the bypass, the edging of a quiet lane – spaces she would ordinarily pass without a second glance. She became fascinated by nature’s ability to thrive in an urban environment focusing on individual specimens, selecting them from the darkness with a spotlight.
The series was produced in response to an online residency she attended from March – July 2021 in collaboration with Lumen Studios. The aim of the residency was for participants to ‘reflect upon and share the ways with which their lives and creative practice have been affected as a consequence of the global pandemic.’
Image credit: A series of photographs taken by Sarah Connell
The residency enabled me to re-engage with analogue photography and my practice. The work in Into the Night elevates individual blades of grass to centre stage, as the rest of the landscape falls away into darkness. The simplistic nature of the pinhole camera liberated me from the pressure of my traditional practice & twilight explorations. The viewer is left to question their relationship with the natural world in this series of photographs presented.
Image credit: A series of photographs taken by Sarah Connell
ID: A photo of some blades of grass in the centre against a black background
The online gatherings began on the Summer Solstice, as spring & summer days returned, the light returned to my practice once again; as I transitioned from shooting during twilight into the daytime hours. As the seasons changed and the Covid lockdown eased, Sarah was able to travel out of her local area into the Yorkshire Moors & North Wales. She began to explore woodland with a pinhole camera, moving away from the cumbersome Medium Format camera she traditionally used.
More of their work can be found on her Instagram: @always.analogue or her website