This version is changed from my draft submitted to my Tutor.

The introduction to my work below is also included in the presentation of the work in my slideshow included below.

WHAT LIES BENEATH

Introduction

The work

This body of work is a personal response to a dynamic landscape, both internally and externally. Ancient woodlands are complex communities, with trees at their heart; they envelop your senses, encouraging you to slowly absorb what you see and feel, wake your subconscious, and inspire reflection.

The photography here explores the possibility of transforming abstract ideas in a photographer’s subconscious into something concrete, via a visual representation of another subject. It positions an ancient woodland as a visual metaphor for community.

Through this work I have learnt that combining the world within my head, with the one in front of me, can be cathartic. This internal and external passage through the landscape, has helped me to accept and heal some of the wounds that inspired it’s beginning. This said it is important to acknowledge that a photograph carries no fixed meaning, and that viewers themselves may complete gaps in the meaning.

Influences on the work

The work is informed by research on ‘affect’ (expressing what is in a photographer’s mind) and ‘effect’(realism), in landscape photography. In essence this is the difference between photographing a subject realistically, and photographing to represent something else, including abstract ideas.

This has been influenced by twentieth century and contemporary photographers who created images as metaphors for something beyond the subject being photographed; thereby combining photographically the world within us, and the world outside us.

The concept of the work is stimulated by humans, though they are not evident in the images. The stimulus is my experience of the local community which seems often disharmonious and driven by difference, in contrast to the many harmonious characteristics of these ancient woodland societies. Qualities such as cooperation, support, diversity, resilience, inclusion, networking, mutual exchange, and adaptation, could in my opinion be beneficially applied to some human communities.

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What Lies Beneath

My final Submission as a slideshow can be seen in the video below:

South, N. (2023) What Lies Beneath At: https://vimeo.com/864896760 (Accessed 15.9.23)