Elswyth

From Elswyth, a collection tracing how architecture holds memory in its surfaces and gathers us back through time.

Durham Cathedral rises in patterns of light and stone that feel both monumental and intimate. The great Norman columns, carved with chevrons and lattices, catch the shifting brightness from the clerestory and draw the eye upward through arches layered in shadow and height. Walking through the nave, the rhythms of the carved stone repeat like a pulse, carrying centuries of footsteps and the quiet weight of devotion. In this vast interior, the familiar textures of the pillars and the soft fall of coloured light from the stained glass create a sense of return – a place where the past sits close to the present.

These stone columns are so familiar from my earliest memories of being in the sacred space of Durham Cathedral that time collapses, and today I am once again a child, as if pulling on a comforting old cardigan to protect me against the worst of the world outside these walls

Words and images © Kate Coldrick – part of the Elswyth collection.