Ten Years Gone
Artist’s book, edition 15, closed 21×25cm, 2016
Ten Years Gone is a book of photographs taken by Stephan Takkides around Britain in the months before he moved away in 2006. The images show buildings that were about to demolished or somehow altered, as well as “brownfield” or rural areas that were planned for redevelopment or facing existential threats from environmental change.
The photos are the result of a series of trips he made around the country, gathering material for a website about the changing British landscape; this website was never finished and eventually abandoned, and the collection of photographs was mostly never used. A decade later, the photos had become an archive of places that no longer exist.
The book is divided into chapters for the day of each journey when the photos were taken. Pictures are captioned with notes stating when the buildings were demolished, land cleared or beaches washed away. As well as a topographical record of the recent past, the book is a personal journal, documenting a last-chance sightseeing tour of a Britain since disappeared.
