Two months ago I moved house, moved country, moved continent. From the UK, my home since my birth on Sunday August 19th 1984, to Australia on Tuesday 29 March 2016. I’ve been away from home for far longer before… Having grown up on the edge of Europe, travel has always been a part of my life. Belonging to a church also means that mission work is always encouraged taking me into the depths of Eastern Europe, Cambodia and rural South Africa.
But this time there is no planned return flight home.
If all goes to plan, I will spend more of my life in the Southern Hemisphere than the North. In 31 years, 7 months and ten days it will be, bizarrely enough, the 1st January 2048 and I will be 63 years old.
By then I hope to have worked out the small differences between the culture I grew up in and the culture I am now living in. A country that was spawned from mine, speaking a language that is the same as mine shouldn’t be too hard to work out, yet that very mentality is why I keep getting caught of guard. My wife is Australian and having spent a couple of years living in the south of England we have come to this conclusion – that the people of our respective countries are influenced by the geography that surrounds them.
To generalise, the English are understated and subtle like their green and rolling hills. The Australians are larger-than-life and dramatic like their impossibly vast landscapes. Each unique and loveable in their own ways.
I am a photographer with a passion for 35mm film. I love the clunk and click of my Nikon FM. The personality of the camera and the film and the photographer all combining into making a unique image.
Of course, I’ve spent a good deal of time capturing the scenery that surrounds me and maybe, just maybe this too will help make sense of the incredible influence landscape has on our collective being.
Hopefully these photographs will show you what I mean. – Simon Peel
(First 5 images: Australia. Last 5 images: UK)
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