The Fear of Falling

Four years ago I had an idea for a short film involving someone dressed in period costume underwater. Shortly after I was introduced to photographer Emma Critchley who had recently graduated from college with a beautiful portfolio of underwater portraits. We quickly discovered we shared numerous ideas about people's relationship with water and were both completely fascinated with how our perception of time and consciousness changes whilst submerged. 

We soon began working together in the water, exploring fabric, movement and the idea of being weighted and grounded in the water. At the time, I was studying dance, which more and more I was incorporating the principles of which into my Waterbody practice and beginning to fully appreciate how being grounded in the water greatly enhanced our experience and perception. This understanding fed into my work with Emma and we started to devise the concept for The Fear of Falling. 

With a love for Victorian photography and costume, I was bound by the timelessness of the imagery from this period and mesmerised by the incredible detail of the stitch-work in the clothing. For many years, I had also been enormously curious about what life was like both during the Victorian era and previously. We are inundated with history books that explain events and people's relationships during the period but I had found myself frequently frustrated that there was very little information available about what consciousness, what the experience of daily life, was like back then. 

I was immensely dissatisfied with our projection of now onto the past. With our heads fervently buzzing with what we will be having for supper this evening or where we will going on Saturday night or holidaying next year, I asked myself, when questions of this nature largely didn't exist pre-1900, how can we really understand what the experience of living was like back during that time? And without such preoccupations about the future, I suspected surely there must have been a far greater engagement with the present than we have the possibility of now? 

With access to the present moment so immediately available in the water, the marriage of these thoughts and ideas soon began to interplay with my work in the water. Having understood deeply in my being, that our calling to go to the water reaches far beyond our desire to swim, I began to posit whether through the experience of submergence in the present day we could appreciate a comparative state of consciousness that pre-dates the 1900's. A tenuous connection perhaps, but the more I considered the notion and let it float through my mind the more I was enchanted and drawn by the idea.

Emma and I soon had a basic Victorian costume made, found a private pool to use and started shooting. Our ideas were still vague but gradually, after chipping away, our vision began to take shape; someone dressing in period costume, with costume and background completely white, to accentuate both a sense of timelessness and the detail of each constructive stitch. Simple indeed in theory but we were quick to find the practicalities and finances would make the acutalisation of our dream far harder than we had previously imagined.   

It took a further two years to get the fundiing in place and without the support from Arts Council England, Metro Imaging, Action Underwater Studios amongst numerous business and individuals our project would not have been possible. And on the day of shooting the final series Emma and I fully understood the ambitiousness of what we were trying to acheive. 

The Fear of Falling will now be on exhibition from 10th-20th September 2008 at Shunt Vaults, London Bridge. To find our further information you can visit our website:

www.thefearoffalling.com