Descriptions

Robert Darch is based in west Devon, on the edge of Dartmoor. His artistic practice encompasses both documentary and fictional accounts of rural Britain. Despite growing up in the Midlands, Dartmoor holds special significance for him, citing the ‘eerie, creepy moor’ of Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles as an influence as well as how people interact with the moor. Critically acclaimed and exhibited widely with work featured in the national press, he recently found recognition in Europe through the touring exhibition Facing Britain: British Documentary Photography since the 1960s.

For four years Robert Darch joined students from South Dartmoor College training for the Ten Tors Challenge on Dartmoor. Since the 1960s, this popular walk of 35, 45 or 55 miles for teams of young people aged from 14 to 19 years old has been managed by the British Army. Secondary schools in Exeter and across Devon train teams of pupils throughout the winter to compete in the challenge in May. Selected from Darch’s larger Ten Tors series, these photographs document a small group navigating extreme weather conditions and exhaustion. The images show, as Darch says, ‘those kinds of quiet moments when they're out by themselves as a team on the moor, rather than the big spectacle in May’.

‘Dartmoor is a space where I feel like there's a sense of freedom. It's the largest area of tranquillity in the south of this country. When you're in the middle of the moor, you really feel like there's space to roam. … And Dartmoor has a really unique atmosphere. It's unlike anywhere else I've been. I'd almost say that the landscape has a presence. Dartmoor has a presence which, for me, is really emotive.’ Robert Darch, 2024


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Image © Robert Darch