next>	50º38’42.48”N 1º56’48.86”W, May 2011, Silver Gelatin Print 20x25cm
	Sentinel
	Within the British landscape there are thousands of pillboxes. These simple concrete and brick structures, designed as lookouts with gun emplacements from which to shoot at the enemy, were built during the Second World War in anticipation of a German invasion, but were never used. Architecturally minimal structures, they line large swathes of the British coastline as well as appearing inland forming 'stop lines' around major urban centres. Sentinel is an ongoing project exploring the nature, status and relationship of pillboxes to the British landscape. First shown at George and Jørgen, London in 2011, Sentinel brings together work which includes, black and White photographs of the simple architectural structures, large photographic negatives made by turning the buildings into cameras and multi screen video installations. Martin Newth has been tracking down and photographing some of the estimated 6,000 pillboxes that still remain in the UK. The series of images highlights the range of simple architectural designs and often show how the buildings have become subsumed into the British landscape, at times buried in undergrowth or part submerged in the sea. Evidence of graffiti and signs of vandalism can be seen in the starkly objective images, betraying the marginal and overlooked status many of these building have today. 56 of these images have been collated as a bookwork published by Broken Glass Books. In addition, Martin Newth has been transforming the small dark chambers into cameras. With the use of a simple lens and sheets of colour photographic paper Newth has made large colour photographic negatives. The images depict the scenes over which the pillboxes have stood sentinel for the past 65 years. The vivid red colour of the photographic negatives, which is a result of Newth's use of colour sensitive paper that is designed to be used under controlled darkroom conditions, show the landscape in great detail and have a dramatic theatricality that points to the buildings' original intended war time function. For the multi-screen video installations Newth has made use of the small openings that were originally intended as apertures from which a soldier might place his gun and observe the scene through the sights. He has replaced the gun with a video camera. The separate viewpoints (from each of a structure's apertures) are shown side by side on separate screens to present a looped, moving panorama, where the architecture of the structure dictates the framing and composition of the scenes. These pillboxes, found on the Dorset coast, have fallen victim of erosion causing a slow slippage into the sea. The viewer is invited to consider the change in what pillboxes may represent. Once they were indicators of a united stand in defence of imminent enemy invasion; now they may be seen to signify the contemporary threat of rising sea levels and the encroachment of the sea caused by climate change and the impending ecological crisis.