Oct 18

Oct 18 Taryn Ferguson: A Saint's City

A Saint’s City by photographer Taryn Ferguson is an on-going chronicle of St Albans. Since January 2019, Ferguson has been slowly interacting and documenting the residents, visitors and those with a connection to the city.

The resulting photographs, paired with quotes from the sitters and narrative, give an insight into the people of St Albans, exploring what makes it a remarkable place.

St Albans is many things, to many people. It's a site of significant religious importance and home to Britain’s first saint, and the city’s namesake, Saint Alban. It is vast green space, a place of great history, and a beautiful market town. The city has a village-like feel which is evident in the way its people talk about it, and it’s exhibited in the way they spend their time: at Verulamium Park, with friends having a picnic in the Orchard or they reflect quietly at the Cathedral. The spaces of great importance in the city are treated as an extension of their back garden.

With all St Albans has to offer, the city attracts a broad spectrum of people from all backgrounds and experiences, making it a fascinating embodiment of 21st century Britain

“Location for an exhibition of my St Albans work was an important consideration. I wanted to show the series in a central point of importance to the residents, and somewhere that would be a drawing point for those visiting the city. It felt natural that the location should be within St Albans Abbey and Cathedral, so I was thrilled to receive confirmation that they wanted to exhibit the work in the autumn.

Although I had many portraits of locals taken over the past few years, I felt more was possible, and with the support of the Cathedral, I wanted to photograph the congregation and there were a number of locations I had in mind that I hoped to photograph a resident in if given the opportunity. Any free moment of the summer of 2021 was spent in St Albans, walking the streets during peak times to meet and interact with the locals. In some cases, I reached out to residents to see if they would be interested in taking part, but the majority of the portraits on exhibition are those that were taken in serendipitous situations.

In a space like the St Albans Abbey and Cathedral, with its great religious importance and cultural heritage, displaying the work was a big consideration. The usual methods of hanging framed work on walls wasn’t possible, as we didn’t want to damage any of the walls and hanging didn’t lend itself to the space either. The inside of the Cathedral and Abbey is grand, and so the work needed to be printed large enough while working nicely with the natural elements - stonework, marble, carved wood, etc. The final portraits are printed in a generous A1 and exhibited on wooden easels. I was pleased with how the size of the portraits and the easels worked within the space. “