Unseen is a photographic project centred around a search for the sublime and spirit of place in my home county of Sussex. It examines the invisible within both the inner and outer landscapes through a series of walks on the key dates of nature’s calendar. Rooted in Romanticism, psychogeographical and hauntological ideas, it’s about exploring sites of spiritual, historical and archaeological significance and my attempts to capture the atmosphere and essence of these places. My interests in myth, lore and the occult also drive the project as I seek out places steeped in stories.
Praise for the photobook Unseen: In Search of the Sublime and Spirit of Place
“Rachel Poulton’s work is simunltaneously intimate and universal, timeless and of the now. She takes her meandering view of a landscape and fixes her shared attention with a gaze. She does more than document the effects of people on the environment, she shows the magical balance that people require to preserve the best of themselves - leaning back into the world that creates their myths. Trees become totems, hills become something else. The world that unfolds shows the audience that they are participant and reflection. Poulton has an almost egoless eye, more keen to share and connect subject to viewer than express anything with urgency. In doing this, she presses into the importance of present.”
Andrew Shaw, The Silent Academy
“I absolutely loved the Unseen photobook - incredible images, beautifully composed and sequenced. Many of the locations are ones that I’ve visited and yet you bring such a distinctive perspective that it is as if I am seeing everything afresh. As a mark of its success in this regard, I immediately had the urge to go out and see the places again, my senses renewed by your inspiration.”
