DETACHED

The River Medway holds a Russian submarine, once a vessel of hidden power, now moored and slowly rusting, a remnant of another era. Along the riverbank stand rows of concrete dragon’s teeth, tank traps left from the Second World War, their hard forms fixed against the relentless flow of water. These fragments of history lay before me, and I had come to photograph them in black and white. Yet as I worked, something felt absent. The scene was heavy with stillness, suspended, almost lifeless. Then a figure entered the frame. Untroubled by the wind along the towpath, she walked with quiet determination, her stride uninterrupted, passing through the landscape as if the weight of history beside her no longer registered. Wrapped in her own thoughts, she moved forward, detached from the past.