Statement
A vacant block. A view that will one day not exist. On weekends people protest against the Chinese Communist Party here.
At the end of 2020, James Leslie Hall found himself with several weeks' leave and, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, limited travel options. With this time he decided to learn how to use a Seagull 4A-1 TLR that had been patiently waiting to be used for many years. Inspired by the work of Peter Mitchell who has documented Leeds (James’ birthplace) since the 1970s, James set about travelling in his own country whilst learning how to use the analogue machine. What started was a process of capturing banal things that tell us something about a place: the abandoned buildings, the vacant lots, and the accidentally passive-aggressive signage. These are all part of the city as it is today, but they’re not usually parts of the story we tell or even parts of the story we think about. His photography is an attempt to share memories we’ve never quite had, of places we’ve never quite been, with people we’ll never meet.