A selection from the series THE REVENANTS
"I change, but I cannot die"
Shelley, The Cloud
This series of photographs was made on daily visits to an ornamental pool on the university campus in Southampton (Hampshire, England) where I work, over the course of a year. More specifically, the series records some of the objects that found their way into the pool, whether as simple wind-blown litter, or as semi-conscious offerings to tutelary spirits.
A revenant is defined as "one who has returned (from death, exile, etc.), a ghost". As well as the likes of Hamlet's father, the word well describes these spectral bits and pieces which reappear, in different guises, day after day in the pool.
In nova fert animus mutatas dicere formas corpora
Ovid, Metamorphoses
Of shapes transformde to bodies straunge, I purpose to entreate
Arthur Golding 1567
Of bodies chang'd to other shapes I sing
George Sandys 1632
Of bodies chang'd to various forms, I sing
Sir Samuel Garth 1717
Animus my mind fert inclines [me] dicere to speak of formas forms mutatas changed in nova corpora into new bodies
Rev. Dr. Giles 1862
My soul is wrought to sing of forms transformed
to bodies new and strange
Brookes More 1922
Of bodies changed to other forms I tell
A.D. Melville 1986
Mike Chisholm, 2006
A full preview of the Blurb Book of this series is available:
