The Iron Buildings.

Shortly after Christmas and just as the third lockdown began, I started making a film about some old barns I can see from my house. They sit, isolated, atop a rather exposed part of the uplands hereabouts; local landmarks visible from the roads and fields but not at all easy to get to. Not least because they’re on private land, behind padlocked gates and at the end of farm tracks only 4x4s can hope to navigate. But they’ve long held a certain Romantic mystery for me, and getting out there to explore them, during the short dark days of winter, made for some much needed adventure.

Tony Huffer, who’s interviewed in the film, farmed the land around the barns for nearly 50 years, and he tells some of the history of the buildings - from being built only with iron and no wood, to hosting parties thrown by US aircrew when they were stationed nearby during the second world war.

I shot this with the intention of making the finished film black and white, and also in a 4:3 aspect ratio, because I wanted something quite photographic, especially given the suitably bleak weather.

The music is a track called ‘Freyja’ by Richard Lacy and Sonia Slany, and is licensed through audionetwork.com