Ben R Wright
I am photographer based in South East England. I’ve worked exclusively with 35mm hand-developed black & white film since 2017. My Series, Cornerland, began in 2018 when I moved back to the southern English county of Kent where I grew up. Around the time I returned, I had been gifted a DNA ancestry test. I didn’t know much about my personal origins beyond a few generations.
Waiting for the results, I imagined ancestors from far flung corners and thought of the apocryphal tales of family histories passed down from previous generations. To my surprise the results concluded the opposite; my ancestors were all from the same small area I departed from. The series has allowed me to explore the relationship with my physical surroundings and also with my personal history.
A way of reconnection through the preconceptions I had before returning and fragmented memories I had before I left. There was a sense of the familiar and echoes of the past but also a feeling of exploration. It wasn’t nostalgia but one of discovery.
