Castle of Memories @ Digital Window Gallery

Our new Open Source artist is Billy Osborn, with his project Castle of Memories.

“I spent much of my early 20s trapped inside a room. Having developed agoraphobia shortly after leaving home, it was increasingly difficult to face the panic and fear I felt whenever I left my flat; living in cities and feeling that busy spaces were impenetrable, I found ways to avoid going outside for weeks at a time. But books and fantasies were an escape from the isolation. Reading Frankenstein or Butcher’s Crossing, I dreamed of fleeing to explore quiet mountains and moors.

Making pictures for Castle of Memories gave me respite. Driving extensively through Britain, forming a bubble of safety inside my little car, I sought to use photography to express my experience with agoraphobia. The view camera became a tool that allowed me to connect to the people and places I found – it mediated between my own discomfort and the outside world, which often reflected my fear, isolation and fantasies back at me.

Castle of Memories was made to initiate conversations about an anxiety disorder. It was intended to push me beyond the stoicism of outdated masculinity and make discussions about mental health unavoidable.”

Billy Osborn is a photographer and teacher from Lincolnshire, England. His long-form projects aim to resolve personal questions about place and identity through extensive engagement with the British landscape. Beyond introspection, his work is intended to initiate dialogue by employing a nuanced approach to image-making and sequencing. Osborn ultimately uses medium and large format analogue cameras as tools for connection and vulnerability.

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.