Artist's Statement
Through the digital manipulation of photographic images I re-configure landscapes. By compiling scores of photographs to make a single image I challenge the viewer’s sense of reality and familiarity. At first glance my work appears to be the subject of photographic reportage but closer inspection reveals its true nature as semi-fictional socio-economic landscapes.

Creating such work is my way of documenting life. Those features that appear commonplace are used as metaphors for the places we occupy when navigating the everyday world; their themes relate to issues common to many environments in Britain.

Each piece of work threads together aspects of everyday life as reflected in the people, buildings, objects and decor found in my work.
In my choice of subject I do not seek to pass judgement, rather I wish to raise issues relating to how we spend our leisure time, where we live and how we change our environment. Such sentiments can be tainted with nostalgia. As for the other meanings I weave into my images I leave them to you to discover.

I seek, through my work, an opportunity for public comment on contemporary social issues. My work has multiple levels of meaning and I wish to engage in the exchange of ideas with practitioners, critics, academics, community groups, professional bodies as well as the general public.

Mark Wood — 2003

The following themes are of central concern to this project:

i) The juxtaposition of incongruous images. Once the viewer understands the arrangement of the photographs have been contrived, they are challenged to resolve the meaning of the work.

ii) The way in which we populate the environment. Documenting the social landscape has been a huge concern for the visual arts throughout history.

iii) The nature of photography as reportage. The work addresses one of those notions which seems to be propagated by the minds of the populous; 'the camera never lies'. Why so? The phrase is blatantly untrue as people like Joseph Stalin tried so hard to prove. And now with the advent of digital image manipulation, the challenge to accept photography as a testimony to the truth should have never been so difficult.