"Verdun. La Foret Sepulture" TV France 3 2002

Courtesy of  Television FRANCE 3

VERDUN.  LE FORET DE SEPULTURE. (2002. TV FRANCE 3 Production)

I began working regularly in the First World War Battlefields, particularly The Somme and Verdun, in 1991. This continuing, thematic strand of my work stems from my abhorrence of War and its disastrous consequences for countless innocent people.

My approach is not to imagine or reconstruct the horrific events which took place, but simply to record these historic sites as they are now.  You could, I suppose, consider me a “visual archaeologist”.  But I am also preoccupied, at a deeper level, with the enigmas of  Time and Space.   As a result of my many working visits to Verdun and the Argonne Battlefields (including Vauquois) I was invited to mount an exhibition of my drawings and paintings at “Le Centre Mondial de la Paix” (The World Centre for Peace) at Verdun in 1999.

In 2001 I received a request from “Television France 3” to participate in a programme about Verdun which they were planning for 2002 and this edited footage represents my contribution.