Murray Ballard

Photographer Murray Ballard explains his approach to creating the South Downs Portfolio for the new hospital waiting rooms in this 5 minute film by Vasil Dzhagalov.

Ballard has lived in Sussex all his life. In photographing the South Downs for this project he was often revisiting places that were familiar and meaningful to him personally.

Titling his collection, ‘Lureland’, Ballard is referencing the photographic ‘allure’ of these picturesque chalky downs, made up of rolling farmland, ancient woodland and ‘picture perfect’ villages. ‘Lureland’ also refers directly to an advertisement by property developers trying to attract Londoners to relocate to new settlements being built on the Downs as part of the ‘Homes for Heroes’ campaign after the First World War.

This collection offers an antidote to the urban environment and modern living. As the writer and environmentalist Wallace Stegner wrote, “the idea of knowing that such places exist might be psychologically resourceful for us.”

“The ‘Lureland’ I have created in this work is a place both real and imagined. A place for the viewer to escape and explore. A paean to the delights of the pastoral idyll.”

Murray’s work will be located across waiting areas to be built in Stage 2 of the 3Ts redevelopment. However, before this opens, his work is exhibited along a major public corridor within the Stage 1 building.