I first encountered the underpass at Lawrence Hill Roundabout on January 7th 2025 as I was making my way to the M32 Skateboard Park. It resembled some form of ampitheatre, or colosseum, with 4 main entrances, each of which safely guided people under the busy roundabout and onwards to different parts of Bristol.
The colour was the first thing that i noticed and having long photographed street art in many countries, including in various parts of Bristol, I stopped to make photographs. Whilst doing this, I also found possessions and objects which had been discarded as well as a plethora of signs advertising events, many of which had long occured.
Its walls and surfaces resembled a palimpsest, a series of layers which were partially transparent revealing earlier layers; a simple form of travelling back through time.
Images taken on 7th January 2025.
In the months afterwards I travelled to Morocco and Western Sahara, where I developed shingles and subsequently post herpetic neuralgia, which was extremely debilitating. I next returned to Lawrence Hill roundabout on 10th June 2025, when i took further images.
Images taken on 10th June 2025
My third visit was 11th September 2025. when I again focussed on the street art and the found objects. I became increasingly aware of the diversity of ethnicity and made efforts to chat with people I met walking through the underpass. This was to continue to interest me as I undertook more formal research into the roundabout and its locality.
Images taken on 11th September 2025.
So I have a collection of images of graffiti, deteriorating posters and found objects and had began to meet with and chat with local people who used the underpass; what does this mean, and what next?
Leave a Reply