Joe Clarke – The Time We Once Had

The Time We Once Had is a body of work rooted in the lockdowns of the Covid-19 pandemic and represents Joe Clarke’s struggles with identity, solitude and the loss of time. When the world was plunged into lockdown in the spring of 2020, the photographer returned to his family home in the remote English countryside, revisiting an area that had defined his childhood.

He began documenting the moments around him that portrayed the solitude of the landscape, the sombreness of the images reflecting the vulnerability and loss the world was experiencing. The places he had frequented as a child were presenting themselves in a new light, allowing him to slow down and appreciate the passage of time.

There is an observable silence to the works, where peaceful images of a poppy, a pertinent symbol for recently lost loved ones, are juxtaposed with dynamic images of flocks of birds, puncturing the sorrow with hints of freedom and hope.

Battling with a sense of identity and direction in life, his lens became an emotional bridge to the past, as he began to find peace through his image making. By revisiting the familiar places of his homeland and retracing the memories of his childhood, he began to reconnect to nature. Starkly frozen in time and devoid of human presence, the images are grounded in spontaneity and sentimentality, inviting a contemplative pause in a world characterised by relentless activity and constant communication. They prompt the viewer to reflect on the time we didn’t realise we once had, to observe the existence of the past and acknowledge the beauty of a fleeting moment.

What had begun as a method of solitary documentation gradually developed into a form of therapy for the photographer and acts as a period of nostalgic reflection and self-discovery. Being forced to slow down, he was able to understand the fragility of time and the importance of honouring it, embracing his ambitions and realising his purpose as the photographer and person he wanted to be.