Sam Hadfield

Originally from the North West of England, now based in East London, Sam Hatfield’s primary interest is the built environment. He is influenced by the perpetual flux and evolution of the city and seeks to rationalise and suspend it through image-making. Using a variety of approaches, including the re-appropriation of archival material, he endeavours to make work that inhabits a space between documentary and fine art.

Current Work

“The Masterplan contemplates the rise, fall, mutation, and impending reinvention of one of Britain’s earliest and largest post-war housing schemes, The Alton Estate, in Roehampton, South West London. 

By combining new imagery and archival material, I hope for the variant opinions of this place to become visible and to ruminate on the multifarious ways this estate has been experienced and recorded. Simultaneously fetishised and condemned, the rich, often conflicting history of this place has been shaped by layers of memory and myth, now absorbed by its buildings, landscapes and inhabitants. 

Now, the estate is facing an uncertain future as controversial plans are underway to partially demolish and redevelop the site. Change that will be celebrated by some and mourned by others, the original vision and ideals of its planners deemed redundant in the face of an ever-expanding city.”