Photography by Dillon Marsh
All photos © Dillon Marsh
Whilst studying Fine Art at the University of Stellenbosch‚ South African photographer Dillon Marsh developed a fascination for the Southern African landscape he had grown up with‚ recalling the numerous trips he had made across the region with his family as a child. In his work Dillon takes a particular interest in the different ways humans and animals leave their structural marks upon the land. His Assimilation series‚ shot in the southern Kalahari Desert‚ showing the nests of the local sociable weaver birds wrapped around telephone poles‚ serves as a perfect example of this focus: “It’s primarily the architecture of the various participants that interests me”‚ he says‚ “I feel there is a lot to be learnt by looking at what humans and animals create and leave behind”.
Dillon Marsh graduated from the University of Stellenbosch in 2003 with a BA in Fine Art and has worked with the medium of photography ever since. Primarily a documenter of the changing South African landscape, his work been shown widely in his native country as well as at the Saatchi Gallery in London and photography exhibitions in Paris, Lisbon and Dublin.
dillonmarsh.com
The sociable weaver bird is unique within the avian kingdom for being the creator of spectacular‚ labyrinthine nests that can hold over a hundred pairs of birds‚ with deep-rooted social and generational hierarchies. Usually these are built in trees but in the absence of plant life in a desert such as the Kalahari‚ a human-made “tree” serves just as well. “I knew only a little about these birds before starting this project”‚ explains Dillon. “My main objective was to express the wonder I felt for the nests – they are incredibly numerous‚ with one on almost every third pole for kilometres on end”. I (fs)
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