Ethan Bennett

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Crimson Legs and Broomsticks2022

The memories that we create as children appear the most vivid. The smells, the sights, the sounds and most importantly the fantastical worlds we created for ourselves using our imaginations. Buttercups could indicate if you liked butter, tall plants turned into our own flying broomsticks. Anything was possible. There is an intense tangibility of these sensory overloads, we can recollect the minute details from fleeting moments. Within this project I am investigating the nature of memories associated with childhood play, experimenting with photographic perspective in order to encourage the viewer to recall their own childhood experiences. The book consists of intimate point-of-view shots , inspired by the work of Rinko Kawauchi’s Semear, with the intention of evoking those heavily visceral feelings. I revisited the play parks I used to frequently go to in my youth, traversing my own childhood memories whilst capturing these photographs. Alongside this I attended more contemporary play spaces, which have become more sophisticated in the structures they used to create stronger sensory appeal. The research that has informed this book has revealed the workings of infantile memory, how playground remembrance is entirely positive and how recollection can lead to manipulation of such memories to create a false narrative.


©EthanBennettShoots Conceptual ArtistHampshire based