A Whisper In Hagley Woods | 2020 – 2023
30 pages
Silver ink on black paper
Printed by Raddraaier SSP in Amsterdam, The Netherlands

A Whisper In Hagley Woods is centred on a mysterious unsolved murder case that was committed during World War II. In 1943, four boys found the complete skeleton of a woman in a hollow tree in Hagley Wood, UK. Despite a thorough investigation, the victim was never identified and no suspects were ever arrested. The photo book juxtaposes exclusive forensic photographs from the crime and 35mm landscape photographs Jelle Havermans shot in the forest in which the aforementioned crime occured, so many years ago. A Whisper In Hagley Woods contains never before published crime scene photos from the Hagley Wood murder. Furthermore, it functions as an investigative object in itself; contemplating on the haunting aesthetics of forensic imagery and ”placeness”. The photos are printed in silver ink on matte black paper, as to evoke associations with Daguerreotypes and old photographic techniques. A Whisper In Hagley Woods is a work about the ways ghosts can inhabit places and objects but simultaneously about the eerie power of photography itself.