Red Creeper | Andy Hughes

Andy Hughes' Red Creeper series of photographs is a visual and poetic response to the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown measures on our perceptions of the environment and its impact on our psyche. The series highlights the strange beauty of the coastal seaweed called Gutweed and how its vibrant green color takes on new relevance when imagined as a creeping red weed invading its surroundings. After the lockdown measures were relaxed, Hughes revived his coastal walks amongst the vibrant green seaweed called Gutweed. He saw it’s beauty in a new light, but also felt its invading presence. He imagined it coloured red, not vibrant green thereby taking on new contemporary relevance inviting the viewer to reflect on the parallels between fact and fiction.

'In the end the red weed succumbed almost as quickly as it had spread. A cankering disease, due, it is believed, to the action of certain bacteria, presently seized upon it. Now by the action of natural selection, all terrestrial plants have acquired a resisting power against bacterial diseases - they never succumb without a severe struggle, but the red weed rotted like a thing already dead. The fronds became bleached, and then shrivelled and brittle. They broke off at the least touch, and the waters that had stimulated their early growth carried their last vestiges out to sea'.

Extract from The War Of The Worlds by H.G. Wells