Under the flight path, the landscape of Heathrow

London Mayor Boris Johnson has announced that a new city with 190,000 homes and thousands of jobs could be created if the capital's hub airport moves from Heathrow in west London to a new airport in the Thames Estuary. The Airports Commission will rule on the Estuary option later this year.

Photographer Dan Norwood who completed a Masters in Photojournalism from Westminster University last year has been working on a project entitled, Heathrow Villages, in which he explores the area around the current airport.

"I think this is a fascinating subject as it addresses important issues relating to pollution, global warming and our predilection for air travel," says Norwood. "Against this backdrop are communities with rich agricultural histories threatened with destruction."

He has produced a newspaper of the work, including maps showing the areas of possible development and a translation of one of the meetings between Heathrow Airport Limited and residents from the Harmondsworth and Sipson Residents Association. A nice addition is the occasional black line through the text to represent times when an aircraft passed overhead drowning out the speakers during the debate.

Norwood wanted to take what he calls a sideways glance at the issues, and to avoid the obvious press approach. He worked on film for the aesthetics and what he describes as the slow way of working it enforces.

Here's a selection of the work.

A surreal landscape surrounds the western side of the airport. This is the most likely area for future expansion.

Morning make-up is applied along the Bath Road, to the north of the airport.

A billboard alludes to the area's agricultural past. The first Cox's Orange Pippin apple was grown locally in 1830.

The Moor, which contains around 70,000 trees planted on 260 acres of reclaimed land, was created and is maintained by British Airways.

The Airports Commission, headed by Sir Howard Davies, will make its final recommendation on airport expansion in summer 2015.

Built in 1426 by Winchester College, this 60m long barn was dubbed the Cathedral of Middlesex by Sir John Betjeman. It lies on the edge of plans for expansion to the north-west of the airport. The picture shows the southern end of the barn's interior damaged by fire.

Sipson is one of the villages to the north of the airport threatened with demolition. Norwood attended a meeting convened by Heathrow Airport Limited in May 2013 to brief local residents about expansion plans.

Walking around the airport, Norwood was looking for the unusual and the unsettling. He said: "This well-dressed woman dragging a ragged piece of carpet along the street asks more questions than it answers. This area and the houses in the background are threatened with demolition."

Prior to 2010 some residents took advantage of a Property Market Support Bond scheme which saw BAA (the then owners of the airport) buy properties under threat from the new third runway.

Since Sir Howard Davis's interim report, the Rising Sun Pub, to the south-west of the airport, is now no longer under threat.

Dreamliners and Airbus A380s taking off from the north runway fill the sky yet here a local butcher practises before competing in a control-line model flying competition.

You can see more of Dan Norwood's work on his website.