In 1999 Charlotte Moth started to take photographs of buildings and spaces within seaside and leisure locations. They were at this moment a form of research and way to instigate ideas towards the generation of sculptures. At that time Moth was pre-occupied with forms of simulacra, with a form of sculptural drawing or observation achieved through physically re-fabricating and falsifying spaces. The resulting collection of photographs kept growing and Moth became increasingly aware that these photographs meant more to her than a hidden form of research or background activity: they needed a form of activation and questioning through the potential that externalization might bring, such as the context of an exhibition. She became interested in how research could exist as a form of practice. The activity of developing a long term collection contained a form of longevity, a relativity of speed and slowness that could develop on parallel levels, through the build up of images, sites and through the development of research on a conceptual level.
This research was triggered through the interests that surfaced within the images themselves, such as the questioning of social spaces, movements of architecture in relation to art historical movements such as constructivism. Moth’s work developed an interest in forms and use of language in relation to the photographs, and became an investigation into an understanding of phenomenological readings of site, space and place.