There has always been something about ancient Egypt that has stopped me in my tracks.
Perhaps it is the extraordinary beauty of the hieroglyphs carved with such precision. Perhaps it is the unwavering gaze of statues that have survived thousands of years. Or perhaps it is the quiet realisation that the people who created these works were asking many of the very same questions we continue to ask today.
Who are we?
Why are we here?
What exists beyond the limits of what we can understand?
This collection began with my own photographs, captured during moments of genuine awe and curiosity. Standing before these ancient inscriptions and sacred figures, I was struck not by how different those civilisations were from us, but by how familiar they felt. They observed the skies, recorded their stories, honoured forces greater than themselves and sought meaning in a vast and mysterious universe. Their intelligence, artistry and spiritual depth continue to speak across the centuries.
Today, we find ourselves in an age of unprecedented technological advancement. We can map distant galaxies, communicate instantly across continents and build machines capable of remarkable feats. Yet despite all our progress, we still find ourselves looking upward and wondering whether we are alone. Discussions surrounding unexplained phenomena, the possibility of intelligent life beyond our world and humanity’s place within the cosmos have once again entered public consciousness.
I do not claim to have answers.
I am not suggesting that the ancients possessed secret knowledge beyond our reach.
But I do believe they understood something we often forget: the importance of humility in the face of mystery.
Through a delicate watercolour transformation of my original photographs, these works invite us to see ancient Egypt not as a distant chapter confined to museums and textbooks, but as a mirror held up to ourselves. They remind us that curiosity is one of humanity’s oldest instincts, that wisdom can endure long after empires fade, and that wonder may be as important as certainty.
Before We Forgot is a collection about remembrance.
It is about honouring the brilliance of those who came before us, respecting the questions they left behind, and recognising that the search for understanding did not begin with our generation.
Perhaps the greatest lesson from the ancient world is not that they had all the answers.
It is that they never stopped asking the questions.
As we stand on the threshold of new discoveries and reconsider what we believe to be possible, this collection offers an invitation:
To look back with reverence.
To look forward with openness.
And to remember that, before certainty, there was wonder.
