Portrait of a creative community

Described as an antidote to throwaway culture, Suzy Bennett's beautiful book, Artisans of Dartmoor, celebrates inspiring individuals who work in traditional crafts. Tracy Calder talks to her about the challenges involved in environmental portraiture

- Tracy Calder

Blacksmith Greg Abel works in near-total darkness, the colour of hot metal determining his next move. Dust settles on his clothes, skin and hair, turning everything grey. At the heart of the room is a forge housing a coal fire that Greg expertly tends. The walls around him are lined with tools for grasping, twisting and hammering metal. He is the master of his domain, and his cave-like workplace is both a photographer's paradise and a photographer's worst nightmare.

Award-winning journalist and photographer Suzy Bennett first encountered Greg while looking to buy a curtain rail nearly 20 years ago. 'I'd just moved to Devon from London and the cottage I live in has very wobbly walls,' she smiles. Someone from the pub suggested that Suzy contact the local blacksmith, so that's where she headed, armed with a few measurements and no idea of what to expect. 'Having lived in London, I'd been completely sealed off from acts of creation, so seeing this Victorian forge with its old ironmongery, was absolutely bewitching,' she recalls. 'It was like entering a time warp.'

Cultural movement

Suzy's visit to the blacksmith led to an interest in other crafts in the area. 'From that moment on, I was captivated by the craft scene,’ she reveals. Luckily for Suzy, Greg was well connected, and he introduced her to a willow weaver, who introduced her to a shoemaker, who introduced her to a potter, and so on. Having settled in the community, Suzy decided to embark on a personal project documenting some of the people and places she had discovered.

‘The project just grew and grew, leading to a couple of exhibitions,’ she explains. ‘After a while, people started suggesting that I make a book out of it.’