Castle of Memories. Interview with Billy Osborn

Open Source is our rolling submission-based open call, giving developing and early-career artists the opportunity to showcase their work digitally on the gallery’s exterior screen. Our current Open Source artist, Billy Osborn, is sharing his projects and his inspiration with us in a conversation with Declan Connolly, Open Eye Gallery’s talent and design coordinator. Billy’s project, Castle of Memories, is on our Digital Window Gallery until 16 November.

DC: Can you tell us a little about yourself and your practice? What are you interested in as a photographic artist?

BO: My earliest memory of making photographs was wandering around the outskirts of my village with an iPad from school. That was over ten years ago, but it’s funny to think how much it relates to what I’ve been doing ever since. The huge gridded screen was not so dissimilar to the view camera I’ve used in recent years — I’ve just been wandering slightly further afield. 

I usually first conceive of projects as explorations of place, and then consider how they might speak to a context outside of geography. My former teacher David Barnes, who leads the BA Documentary Photography course at USW (formerly Newport), often used to speak about “small stories, big ideas”, and I apply this thought to my work in the landscape. Castle of Memories, for example, could be read narrowly as one person’s experience driving aimlessly through Britain, and to some extent that would be true, but the emphasis on that perspective coming from an agoraphobic man also enters it into broader conversations about mental health. Though my projects begin with a personal journey through the world, I’m always interested in how they are culturally relevant too. 

“I usually first conceive of projects as explorations of place, and then consider how they might speak to a context outside of geography.”

DC: Do you work exclusively in large and medium format? 

BO: I have since 2018, but I made the very last photograph for Castle of Memories with a digital camera. I don’t have any qualms about mixing formats or blending film and digital, but making that picture helped me see that the project was finished. It showed me that I was ready for something new, mentally and creatively, and that I was only going to stray from my original intentions if I continued making the work.

Maybe we’ll talk about this later, but the work I’m most excited about beginning will likely require me to use a compact digital camera instead. I’m hoping to find one I can love the way I loved my view camera, or like I continue to love the Pentax 67.

DC: Both projects on your site currently (‘Hold Still, Darling’ and ‘Castle of Memories’) discuss a less “stoic” masculinity – what brings you back to this subject?

BO: That’s difficult for me to answer. I suppose that, since part of my work usually addresses questions from my personal life, the overlapping timelines of the projects could mean I’d naturally be drawn to similar themes. That might have been because I was in the midst of mental health struggles and wondered why it was so difficult to talk, or perhaps I’m likely to return to questions about masculinity for years to come. I’m not sure.

DC: We’re so pleased to be sharing your series ‘Castle of Memories’ for Open Source #32. The series really connected to our exhibition ‘Firehawks’ by Stephen King and the idea of using photography to re-address a relationship to environment. Did the series begin in this way or did you have a particular style or list of images in mind before you started making the pictures?

BO: I love that link between Stephen’s work and my own. It’s interesting to think about Castle of Memories as a reaction to two different environments — the interior spaces where I spent most of my time (due to agoraphobia), and the British landscapes I fantasised about whilst indoors. I wanted to escape from the former and re-engage with the latter. You might also think of my internal world as a third environment since that’s where so much of my relationship with the world existed.

When I fully committed to the project in 2022, I was prompted by three of my own images. Making each of those I’d felt an intense conviction that my subjects were expressing my inner world. It comes back to that idea of outdated stoic masculinity — I couldn’t make myself talk to others, but I could leave pictures like breadcrumbs to lead us to those conversations.

I didn’t have a list of images going into the project. The act of looking for those intense moments was the purpose propelling me outside and through the world, and I could never predict where I’d find them. I remember reading Tod Papageorge’s idea that preimagined images rely on the photographer’s imagination, “a faculty that … is generally deficient compared to the mad swirling possibilities of our dear common world”. Some of the best contemporary photography comes from the strength of constructive abilities — look at the work of Alice Poyzer and Pia-Paulina Guilmoth — but I wouldn’t want to rely on my own. 

“It comes back to that idea of outdated stoic masculinity — I couldn’t make myself talk to others, but I could leave pictures like breadcrumbs to lead us to those conversations.”

DC: Where do you find your inspiration for making new work? Do you have a process or is each time different?

BO: I love looking at work wherein a photographer’s inner world is expressed through her engagement with the outer world. The way Alec Soth talks about this is perfect — he refers to John Szarkowski’s categories of ‘window’ and ‘mirror’ photographers, but says that windows are often mirrors themselves. We can make pictures and projects that are ostensibly about the outside world, but in doing so we can reveal just as much about ourselves. 

“We can make pictures and projects that are ostensibly about the outside world, but in doing so we can reveal just as much about ourselves.” 

My projects usually begin with a desire to make a journey. That journey is then coloured by the atmosphere of my internal world, and I look for where the internal and external are analogous to one another. This summer I drove along the entire Welsh coast, sleeping in my little van, for a new project called Heaven’s Floor. I have changed in the short time since I made those pictures, and I won’t return to the work until I find that desire or connection again. It doesn’t matter how long that takes. 

Apart from photography and myself, books and music are my biggest sources of inspiration. I love literary fiction because a character’s inner life is often as important as (or even more important than) the context they find themselves in. Music helps me find the mood of a project.

DC: What would be one of your dream projects if you had access and time?

BO: Currently I’m dreaming about walking the entire length of Britain next year. Hopefully time, money, and my body will allow. It’s fun to wonder what the pictures could be about.

I mentioned earlier that I was looking into using different camera formats — that was for this project. I just don’t think you can carry a Pentax 67 or view camera with enough film for 1200 miles. 

DC: Have you learned anything recently that has influenced your work? It can be big or small!

BO: It’s hard to say whether it will influence my next pictures, but I can tell you what I’ve learned most recently anyway.

I saw Turnstile at Alexandra Palace a few days ago. After years of discomfort around groups of people, it was incredible to see that I could feel comfortable and connected to thousands of others. Maybe my pictures will show less isolation in the future. Incidentally, the show was opened by High Vis, who are fronted by Merseyside’s Graham Sayle. He spoke about the value of immigration and our NHS. Good stuff. 

Recently there was a situation where I had to talk openly about my mental health, and I was very grateful to learn how receptive people will be, whether or not they’re family, when they care about you or have any degree of empathy. I wonder if fully internalising that lesson would have an impact on my practice.

DC: Where can people find your work?

BO: Either through billyosborn.com or my Instagram, @billyosb. I’m trying to learn to be less private about what I make, but I’ll usually share with those who ask too. 

Open Source is a rolling submission-based open call, giving developing and early-career artists the opportunity to showcase their work digitally on the gallery’s exterior screen. We’re looking for photographic projects that connect to our exhibitions, offering new ways of looking at the issues we confront in the gallery.

Images: Castle of Memories by Billy Osborn.