Invisible by their intrusiveness, unobserved by most, the power lines that cross our landscapes trespass into most photographers scene with brutal disregard.

However as a photographer I find these statues of power cannot be overlooked. Their geometric lines and simplicity of function deserve further study, and please me in a minimalist frame. Their linear form and simple function go unnoticed by most but I chose to document them in this series titled “Dividing Lines”.

There is a certain malevolence that comes from these ever-present sentinels, looming over us and cutting through our lands. The grid has become an omnipotent force in a world where, without electricity, the very fabric of society collapses. Delivering comfort and security, but which ties us to their web. One that can equally be shut off, or billed to control us.

The fact that the power lines themselves are now “part of the landscape” is a symbol of our blind dependence. These towering frames that stretch across our landscape are the physical embodiment of profit and control. Statues of humankind spread around the globe. They divide fields, cross mountains, follow valleys and enter each and every home. We depend on them for our survival yet erase them from our imagery, ignore them in our periphery, and as photographers we shy away from them as a subject. I argue that, like stone walling and cultivated fields, these manmade structures should feature in our photography. We should record them in our landscapes.

Standing beneath the lines, looking skyward, I ponder our controlled existence, a life lived within the walls of the grid. From beneath the power lines, the sky seems unreachable, my view obstructed by the man-made barrier that traverse above the land.

I wonder about a simpler time, before the grid, before the power lines, when we may have dreamt of the infinite possibilities and wonder. Before the reliance and control of a multi-national tether.

But I also appreciate the ordered geometry of the network and seek to capture the simple, straight lines that divide this nation in an equally uncomplicated working series.