Photographer Murray Ballard explains his approach to creating the South Downs Portfolio for the new hospital waiting rooms in this 5 minute film by Vasil Dzhagalov.
Murray Ballard has lived in Sussex all his life. Many of the places he photographed for the South Downs Portfolio were already familiar to him and had strong personal resonances.
Titling his collection, ‘Lureland’, Murray refers directly to an advertisement by property developers after the First World War. Part of the ‘Homes for Heroes’ campaign, developers were trying to attract Londoners to relocate to new settlements being built on the Downs.
The title also alludes to the ‘photographic allure’ of these picturesque chalky downs, made up of rolling farmland, ancient woodland and ‘picture perfect’ villages.
This portfolio offers an antidote to the urban environment and modern living. As the writer and environmentalist Wallace Stegner wrote, “the idea of knowing that such places exist might be psychologically resourceful for us.”
‘Teepee Camp, South Farm, near Rodmell’ by Murray Ballard, part of the South Downs Portfolio for the Connect Waiting Room Project.
“The ‘Lureland’ I have created in this work is a place both real and imagined. A place for the viewer to escape and explore. A paean to the delights of the pastoral idyll.”
Murray’s work will be located across waiting areas to be built in Stage 2 of the 3Ts Redevelopment. However, before this opens, his work will be exhibited along a major public corridor within the Stage 1 building.
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| ‘A cow on top of the Downs, near Steyning’ | ‘An old horse-drawn caravan in the garden
of a cottage, near Charleston’ |
‘Bomb crater, above Furlongs’ |
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| ‘Cottages, part of the
Cowdray Estate, near East Bourne’ |
‘Cows near Patcham,
looking towards the South Downs’ |
‘Field of corn, near Berwick’ |
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| ‘Hay-bales, near Furlongs’ | ‘Hat Hill, looking towards Westdean
Woods, near Singleton’ |
‘Hay bales, South Farm, Rodmell’ |
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| ‘River Rother, near Rogate’ | ‘Looking towards South Stoke from
the top of the Downs’ |
‘Celebrating the 1st May, Hollingbury Hillfort’ |
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| ‘Shepherd on a quad bike,
Saddlescombe Farm’ |
‘Teepee camp, South Farm, near Rodmell’ | ‘Plumpton Plain’ |
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| ‘River Cuckmere, near Litlington’ | ‘Furlongs, near Beddingham’ | ‘Sheep in Summer’ |
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| ‘View from the Downs, between Firle and Beddingham’ |
