As a photojournalist I accepted the widely held notion that, in order to credibly record what I saw as an observer, I must remain impartial to my subject. However as time went by I became increasingly conscious that this discipline of impartiality had begun to inhibit my development as an image-maker. It seemed that my preoccupation with capturing factual truth had led me into a practice where aesthetic considerations were marginalized by the need for objectivity. I felt that objectivity and creativity were not simple contraries; for me they entailed a contradiction that was becoming a barrier to further innovative work.

The catalyst for my eventual change in direction was a helicopter crash in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia. Seriously injured, I was faced with the possibility that I might not be able to continue as a photojournalist, and was forced to reconsider the future course of my photography.

The approach I subsequently adopted has allowed me to break free from the restrictions of the documentary genre and to reconnect with my instinctual passion for the photographic medium. Newly enthused by a long-standing interest in the nature of space and time, I have now begun to re-explore a world of diverse influences and interests.

Throughout my career I have used the photographic contact sheet as an editing tool, and have become increasingly intrigued by the compositional and conceptual relationship between images in sequence and time. This fascination has developed into the trademark series that now acts as a template for my present work.

Currently I use landscape to show altering viewpoints and segmented timelines, constructs that underpin many of the mathematical ideas that lie behind what has become known as the 'New Physics'. By means of common horizons, recurrent features of form and of tonality, each image constitutes part of a larger installation that in its entirety is intended to be greater than the sum of its parts. To be exhibited on a scale that reflects the epic nature of its subject, each giant installation should be viewed as a visual mantra that uses repetition to reveal an entropic world shaped by the perpetual conflict between chaos and order.

(Hastings 01.07.2011)