A dystopian vision of Dartmoor unfolds in Robert Darch’s haunting photographs
![An open brown field with one person in the middle](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/tHUEEohWK9migsAEEMtiae-415-80.jpeg)
‘My first conscious memory was the sound of hunting dogs baying on the fringes of Dartmoor,’ says photographer Robert Darch, who recently launched his new book at the Martin Parr Foundation. ‘Although our 1960s semi backed onto fields, the rurality of Devon and the baying hounds must have appeared otherworldly to me as a three-year-old.’
That mystical feeling has stayed with Darch, and it permeates the pages of The Moor, a sci-fi visual narrative that shows the landscape as a dystopia in the near future. Dark, tense and perilous, Dartmoor is turned into a dramatic stage setting, primal and symbolic. As an adult, Darch found himself living in the area, moving closer and closer to the moor, drawn there as if by some uncanny force.
It’s the ambivalence of the bleak and barren landscape that Darch clearly finds so fascinating and that has continued to capture his imagination. ‘The moors can appear serene and beautiful on a summer’s day, but during the winter, covered in snow, fog, battered by high winds and stinging rain you can lose yourself in the landscape,’ he explains.
Darch continues: ‘Initially I was considering making a documentary project about the people that inhabit and work on the moor. However, I soon realised that I was far more interested in making a work about how Dartmoor makes me feel, lost, alone, isolated, excited and scared.’
The people who become the characters in Darch’s narrative all share a relationship with Dartmoor; although constructed. ‘On the days I was out with people I also allowed for situations to naturally present themselves,’ the photographer notes, including a series of images of a male figure falling asleep next to an uprooted tree. ‘My subject hadn’t slept the previous night, he was partying and during the whole shoot he was literally falling asleep standing up. This was a genuine response to a set of real world circumstances which helped formulate the idea of people surviving in a dystopian future.’
Darch is already working on his next project in connection Dartmoor, but this time it’s something more traditional: a documentary project on teens training for the Ten Tors, an annual event organised by the British Army.
The Moor, £16, published by Another Place Press
Wallpaper* Newsletter + Free Download
For a free digital copy of August Wallpaper*, celebrating Creative America, sign up today to receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories
Charlotte Jansen is a journalist and the author of two books on photography, Girl on Girl (2017) and Photography Now (2021). She is commissioning editor at Elephant magazine and has written on contemporary art and culture for The Guardian, the Financial Times, ELLE, the British Journal of Photography, Frieze and Artsy. Jansen is also presenter of Dior Talks podcast series, The Female Gaze.
-
‘Hedonistic and avant-garde’: Rabanne’s Julian Dossena on the legacy of the chainmail 1969 bag
Paco Rabanne’s 1969 chainmail handbag encapsulates the late designer’s futuristic, space-age style. Current creative director Julien Dossena tells Wallpaper* about the bag’s particular pleasures
By Jack Moss Published
-
Postcard from Paris: Olympic fever takes over the streets
On the eve of the opening ceremony of Paris 2024, our correspondent shares her views from the streets of the capital about how the event is impacting the urban landscape.
By Minako Norimatsu Published
-
The Mercury Prize nominees for 2024 have been revealed
Charli XCX, The Last Dinner Party and Beth Gibbons are amongst this year's nominees
By Charlotte Gunn Published
-
‘Mental health, motherhood and class’: Hannah Perry’s dynamic installation at Baltic
Hannah Perry's exhibition ’Manual Labour’ is on show at Baltic in Gateshead, UK, a five-part installation drawing parallels between motherhood and factory work
By Emily Steer Published
-
Francis Alÿs plots child play around the world at the Barbican
In Francis Alÿs' exhibition ‘Ricochets’ at London’s Barbican, the artist explores the universality of play, even in challenging situations
By Amah-Rose Abrams Published
-
At Glastonbury’s Shangri-La, activism and innovation meet
Glastonbury’s south-east corner is known for its after-dark entertainment but by day, there is a different story to tell
By Rhian Daly Published
-
Suzannah Pettigrew's 'tender and ghostly' new show at Surrealist photographer Lee Miller's former home in East Sussex
London-based artist Suzannah Pettigrew's photographic stills create a snapshot of her Sussex coast childhood, conjuring up a hallucinatory world of memory
By Mary Cleary Published
-
How the west won: Ivan McClellan is amplifying the intrepid beauty of Black cowboy culture
In his new book, 'Eight Seconds: Black Cowboy Culture', Ivan McClellan draws us into the world of Black rodeo. Wallpaper* meets the photographer ahead of his Juneteenth Rodeo
By Tracy Kawalik Published
-
The Roth Bar at Hauser & Wirth Somerset serves up a cocktail of salvaged materials
Art and entertaining meet in Oddur Roth’s bar sculpture at Hauser & Wirth Somerset, a site-specific installation and social hub
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Studio Lenca nods to Salvadorian heritage with riot of colour in Margate
Studio Lenca considers boundaries in ‘Leave to Remain’ at Carl Freedman Gallery in Margate
By Emily Steer Published
-
Meet the Turner Prize 2024 shortlisted artists
The Turner Prize 2024 shortlisted artists are Pio Abad, Claudette Johnson, Jasleen Kaur and Delaine Le Bas
By Hannah Silver Published