Zoe Hamill

Born: 1987, currently based in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Education: BA Hons Photography, University of Ulster.

Exhibitions: Museum of Contemporary Photography of Ireland, Images Are All We Have, group show, Dublin, 2022. Filtr Collective, Collection 1, group show, Edinburgh, 2021. Museum of Contemporary Photography of Ireland, New Irish Works, group show, Dublin, 2019. Stills Centre for Photography, Projects 18: Fresh Focus, group show, Edinburgh 2018. Glasgow Women’s Library, When The Light Shifts, group show, Glasgow, 2017. Carlisle Photo Festival, Visualising the Animal, group show, various locations, 2015. Belfast Exposed, Hold The Line, group show, Belfast, 2014.

Project Title: A Map Without Words

A Map Without Words is an investigative study into the land that I’m from. The townland has been home to generations of my family and I often feel part of a continuum of people in that place, generational histories playing out across a backdrop of the same trees, stones and fields. At the same time, I feel a connection to the landscape that is a physical sensation, rather than related to memory or nostalgia. My research has been informed by naturalists of the 19th century, and that obsession with measuring and classifying which I think is rooted in the imperialism of the time, particularly relevant given the location of the work in Co.Antrim. I collected as much data as possible about this place; drawing on cartographies, found imagery and personal histories as well as the materiality of the land in a literal sense. 

I then created a catalogue of the images, based on the standards and practices of the British Museum to create an archive of the land.

All the places photographed have an inherent value and meaning to me and my family, each one often containing layers of generational memories that are impossible to articulate within the confines of the image and its accompanying archival data. In this way, I'd like to present a project that invites people to think about place and identity, but also the shortcomings of photography and the archive in giving us true understanding of a subject.

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