The Edge of Ruin

For The Edge of Ruin, Marc Wilson turns his lens toward the traces of Britain's industrial past, says Peter Dench

- by Marc Wilson

The Edge of Ruin documents locations where human ambition once tore open the Earth and where nature now attempts, imperfectly, to knit it back together. The 56 images spread across 136 pages are subtle. The three elegant throw-outs, draw the viewer into landscapes that appear benign at first glance. Look harder and you see the residue of extraction, labour and upheavals of history. Wilson's journey was physically and emotionally extensive. Beginning in October 2023, he walked more than 1,000km in search of overlooked spoil heaps softened by grass, ghostly tracks fading into the ground and hillsides carved by industry then left to weather into abstraction.