Phillipa Klaiber - Vorest
“I grew up on the border of the Forest. In this landscape, I am both a Forester and an outsider. Through Vorest, I endeavour to better understand this land and our place within it.” On the English side of the Welsh border is the Forest of Dean. It is described by photographer Phillipa Klaiber as an ancient place– a forest of plantation and ancient woodland, of farmland, heathland, quarries and mines. Locally it is known as the Forest and its inhabitants, Foresters.
Among the Foresters exists a collective desire to maintain the ecological balance of their land. Historically, the Forest of Dean has a rich culture of land use. Its woodlands are mysterious in their allure, and the ancient land-based rites that continue to be upheld are particularly unusual. Most fascinating to Phillipa is the rite for Foresters born within the historic boundary to train for a year and a day (or more) to become a Free Miner and open their own mine of coal or iron ore. Traditions such as these form the foundation of the Foresters’ culture and collective memory. The title of Phillipa’s work, Vorest, comes from the Forest dialect, a broad West Country accent with rapid speech. An amalgamation of Celtic, Anglo-Saxon and old English, the Forest dialect has been shaped by the insular lives of mining communities. Many of the words and phrases are details or action of the land, as well as real working class life:
Vorest - forest
Hain - enclosure of land
Moot - to root as pigs do
Vern - trainee miner
Scowle - areas of ancient, shallow, open cast iron ore mines
Embedded within Vorest, are archive photographs taken from the local museum’s collection. As much as Philippa focuses on capturing the Forest’s environmental present, she pays homage to the narratives long past, researching deep into archives to show the enduring folk and rural traditions that remain ever-present in the Forester’s memories. For Phillipa, the landscape is tactile and material; a place in which the human role is reduced, but still present. Using maps to locate the landmarks of local folktales, historical task-scapes, and contemporary environmental project, Phillipa walked in all of the landscapes of the Forest; the ancient woodlands, plantations, heathland, quarries, and underground mines. Often alone on these journeys, the rhythm and pace of walking became a meditative hymn which allowed the memories of each collected story to influence her photographs. These the routes, Phillipa notes, “were chosen in the moment, defined by the topography of the land.”
- Edited by Alexa Fahlman
