Andy Marshall's Genius Loci Digest: 19 Sep 2025
If an alien did walk these rooms, it might wonder whether human beings build in a fever-dream of fragments
This digest revels in the in-between, the transitional, the presence of absence. My camera with its dials and knobs and sharp focus has taken me into the blur of things. It has taught me that because things can't be measured it doesn't mean that it isn't there. The spirit of things, the essence of our places is as real as my shutter button.
If an alien did walk these rooms, it might wonder whether human beings build in a fever-dream of fragments
This is how the masons who built this place would have seen it – and now this realm of rarified air, this dwelling place of angels, is soon to be joined by a humbled human being.
A little church in Warwickshire - a place beyond the ratings.
And having spent so much time absorbed in the optics of photography, it was on my journey to Carlisle, in my encounter with the window there, that I realised how singular this medium is to our isles...
And so, when I step inside and the nave stretches out towards the chancel, I see it unencumbered, without expectation - through the eyes of a beginner. The impact is almost overwhelming.
Here in Paris, with his work all around me, I feel the cataracts of modern life thinning...
Even when I’m heading back home I can feel its zest, its warmth and light. I take the memory of it with me inside, like contraband.
Part of the joy I feel as I sit with a vin rouge, watching life ripple through the square, is a deeper sense of connection and gratitude
That moment got my cognitive juices flowing. I began to wonder: if a single face could hold such depth, what might happen if I tried to capture it line by line in my sketchbook?
✨ Wondering why I ask for support?
An Anxiety of Memberships