Richard spent three years photographing the refurbishment of a hostel consisting of four Grade ll listed regency town houses. Diminished by years of neglect, it had been privately run for almost a quarter of a century as accommodation for homeless men. A period of transformation took place in a project not only designed to deal with an overhaul of the building, but one that would impact significantly on the lives of those inhabiting it.
“Set in stark contrast to the relentless growth of the population and the buoyant property market, it is an uncomfortable message scrawled on the shining postcard of an aspirational city……..He steps back from the process of structural transformation in search of what the building might reveal or suggest as it is systematically taken apart and then remade…………
For him the building process was as much an excavation as it was a renovation, both in the uncovering of a material past in bricks and mortar and in the releasing of long forgotten atmospheres, as though the house itself had in some way absorbed the memories and experiences of people who had stayed and lived in its rooms over generations.”
David Chandler, Photoworks