Installation View
A set of sixteen silver gelatin prints on Ilford MG Fibre Based Matte Paper
It is over 25 years since Ravenscraig Steelworks closed on June 24th 1992. What was once Western Europe’s largest hot strip mill is now one of it’s largest contaminated Brownfield sites.
Situated in the industrial heartlands of Lanarkshire, the closure of Ravenscraig signalled the final death toll of heavy industry in Scotland. For many people this remains an emotive and divisive subject to this day. Now reclaimed by nature, in the quarter century since its closure much of the land remains undeveloped. Though the buildings and totemic gas and water towers have been demolished, redevelopment of the land has been slow paced.
Traces and Edges is a long-term photographic project that maps, both physically and metaphorically this landscape in flux. Over a number of years, a picture was formed of what became of this post-industrial site. The photographs that form Traces and Edges set out to address questions about the effect on the landscape after centuries of heavy industry ceases.
What does ‘contaminated’ land look like? And what trace; if any. of this history remains?