When the UK government enforced the third national lockdown I took it upon myself to explore and document my hometown of Chesterfield due to having time and freedom on my hands. Having grown up in Chesterfield the majority of my life, and recently moving back there in early 2020 after studying in Manchester, my perspective on the place had changed significantly; this providing me with a great appreciation of the town.
I have been using my time to document the town, photographing the mundane and banal landscapes that I would have usually overlooked a few years ago. Due to the lockdown I have been able to photograph areas that would usually be full of life, however my images cause feelings of the opposite, creating a sense of eeriness and thoughts of where and what people are spending their time doing during the pandemic. I have also spent time exploring areas of the small historic market town, as well as visiting nostalgic places that have greatly influenced my life.
Conor Graves is a documentary photographer that has recently graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University. His practice is heavily based on the documentary aspect of life, and often focusses on the mundane and banal places which ordinarily go unnoticed. Being from a typical working class British background inspires him to work on projects that raise questions about the everyday British Landscape.