Nature nominee

The forest at night is full with uncertainty in the darkness beyond the torchlight. However rational one is during the day, at night in a dark wood, there is a strong reconnection with childhood fears and magical imaginings, indeed fairy tales have long held the dark forest as a metaphor for the unconscious. One feels quite palpably that this is not our domain; it belongs to the deer, the owls, to the wild night. To enter this dreamlike world is to take a step towards the unknown - to leave the familiarity of the village and to enter the wild forest.
My photography is an exploration of this haunting domain. The images are attempt to create a feeling of enchantment, reverence and perhaps a thrill of spellbinding unease. I am lured by the idea that I do not know what lies beyond the light of my torch, the definite forms of the visible give way to blackness either in the form of a hole or tunnel, or in the case of a solitary tree - the lonely, unbounded void beyond. The images are as much about the darkness behind and between the trees, as they are about the trees themselves.

Jasper Goodall studied illustration at the University of Brighton graduating in 1995. He went on to be highly influential in changing face and perception of illustration throughout the 90's and 2000's. As an illustrator he was published in magazines like The Face and Dazed and confused, worked for music and fashion clients and had solo shows in the Viaux gallery for fashion photography, Hamburg and Electric Blue Gallery, London. In 2014 he took a step back from the world of illustration and re-trained as a Psychosynthesis counsellor, focussing his energies on understanding his own and other's minds.
After four fallow years during which no imagery was produced, Goodall felt able to once again engage his creativity. This time instead of drawing he focussed on photography which had been a growing interest during the final years of his illustration career. His new body of work focuses on the mysterious and enchanted world of the woods after dark, and is an attempt to convey the chilling magic and brooding silence of the night forest.