Our third featured finalist is David Ketley. His photos can be seen below …

My project is titled OFTHEEARTH and is a conceptual project using cameraless photography to capture the landscape of the Hope Valley are within the Peak District.

OFTHEEARTH returns to old photographic practices and rethinks their applications; using analogue film, David Ketley questions the genre of Landscape photography and what it means to depict the land. Inspired by the work of Matthew Brandt, he seeks to physically incorporate the land into his  images by burying photographic film into the landscape. This allows the millions of microorganisms in the soil to act as a separate entity to interact with the film, distorting it and leaving visible traces that are just as indexical as an optical photograph burnt onto the emulsion, only here, the earth itself has taken the exposure.

Based in the Hope Valley area of the Peak District, OFTHEEARTH examines the rare soil composition of this northern national park which is home to Millstone Grit, a carboniferous age sandstone unique to the Northern part of the British Ilse. David Ketley

To view all the finalists click here