The aim of today was to build on the landscape session in week 3. Members submitted around 40 of their photographs for viewing and discussion.
Locations ranged from the local (the Beechwoods, Coleridge Recreation Ground, Lammas Land, Jesus Green, the Roman Road) to national (Lowestoft, North Norfolk, Whitby) and international (Galicia, Iceland, Mauritius, Crete, Spain, Turkey). Interpretations of landscape included coasts, farmland, gorges, mountains, parks, rivers, seascapes, towns in their setting and woodland. Only five of the pictures were in black and white.
Discussion brought out some of the background to the pictures: the majority came from previous holidays and days out (pictures on file) and only a minority taken as assignments since week 3. Most pictures were subjected to some assessment of how they might be improved through post procession.
There was very little discussion of why the pictures were taken and what the photographers were trying to achieve, other than to capture a more or less picturesque or dramatic scene to act as a holiday memory. The use of post processing to add or remove significant elements raised the question of whether the landscapes were matters of record or just pleasing pictures.
My submission was the three fen landscapes below. I had set aside a day (28th October) to make these pictures and took pot luck with the weather – as it happened I was fortunate to have a day of sunshine and cloud. I headed for locations seen previously driving up to Oxburgh Hall.
The pictures are part of my ongoing Fen landscape project, though purists may argue that they are at best Fen edge. I’ve tried to capture three things, in varying degrees, collectively in the pictures. Some of the drama in the unique character of the Fen landscape: the graphic qualities inherent in the flatness; and the drama of the wide skies. The impact of changing agricultural practices: mechanisation, the decline in the labour force and the emptying out of the countryside; and the Fens as part of national and transnational system of food production (signs at the sugar beet factory are in east European languages). Finally, to show signs that link this landscape to its history and geology through the standing water and the black soil.
