We thought it appropriate today to post these photographs that represent our search for the grave of Charles McCoy, a Great Uncle, who was a private in the Tank Machine Gun Corps and was killed on the 8th June 1917 during the battle of Messines. Like many his body was never recovered, but, in the absence of an official grave, his name is on the Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres.

We had a 1917 Trench Map that was given to the family and on which was marked the site of his burial. We travelled to France and Belgium to search the area and to make photographs of our quest. We found the field and although we didn’t know our Great Uncle, it was nevertheless very poignant to stand in the rural landscape that was the site of so much carnage.

The layered photographs incorporate the map to express the complexity of the search and the sense of melancholy.