The Place of No Crows

The exhibition The Place of No Crows presents Court’s close observation into Bulgaria where its population has declined dramatically since the fall of communism. Consisting of photographs taken between 2017-2019 during his travel to some of the most depopulated regions, Court focuses on the transitional spaces and how we construct a sense of community and home.

The exhibition evokes the fact that even though many of Bulgaria’s rural communities have become largely uninhabited or, in some cases, abandoned entirely, many of the so-called abandoned ghost villages were in fact lived spaces. Many were on the verge of not existing, however they did exist for the people that still inhabited them. The Place of No Crows is therefore not only about spaces that have been abandoned by people, but about people who have been abandoned to these areas. The name of the series ‘The Place of No Crows’ comes from a local expression Court came across in North Western Bulgaria which was used to refer to an abandoned village.

Court’s work centers on the effects of migration as a consequence of social, political and cultural developments. Through documenting peripheral communities in various states of liminality, affected by either mass migration or depopulation, his work is about how we comprehend our immediate environment, in an attempt to give both context and meaning to our day-to-day lives.