A week in an unfamiliar location; matched with some rather extreme weather conditions provided a great opportunity to look for more material for two of my ongoing series of work, in this case; Rock Art.
I was all set for a week of ice, snow and arctic dawns in the NW of Scotland, well it was early March so the odds ought to have been in my favour but, the run of mild wet weather and rough winds put paid to that notion, for those of us that typically work with large format cameras this meant seeking out more sheltered spots or sitting it out somewhere more comfortable. Both options were explored during the week but in this case seeking the shelter of a deep gully cut out of a cliff on a shoreline provided a great opportunity to spend quiet time alone resolving the complexities of the cracks, textures and play of light on the gully walls.
I do get some odd looks at times, or so I’m told, apparently standing in front of a rock face doing what must look like some tribal dance is likely to be the reason. What am I doing? Well, there is a perfectly rational explanation – I’m composing, not the musical sort though, but for seeing images. Squatting down, standing tall on tip toe, shuffling left, right, and back and forth, moving my hands up and down in front of my face looking through fingers; supplemented by the odd ooh and aah, these are all my composition aids. To then emerge from my dark cloth to be asked: What are you photographing, I can’t see anything? Answered by me with a knowing smile.
I find the landscape utterly absorbing, I can easily lose myself for hours in a small copse, a quarry, along a hedgerow, in fact really nowhere in particular. There is always something to fascinate and pique my interest, order to made of chaos, chaos to be had of order, play of light through foliage, tree limbs morph, rock patterns resolve; I just see things.
In this way, I find the more time I spend in certain environments of the landscape the more I begin to see essence rather than substance. Aspects in the randomness of how nature plays out its story begin to appear as expression of land itself, images form from seemingly un-ordered elements to create abstractions of formed memories or a response to a place or, even a story of the place itself. Fortuitous accidental coincidences of nature of course, discovered subconsciously, but constructed in my mind and presented through subtractive vision of sight.
The mix of exposed geology; rock and mineral ore’s, of which Britain has its fair share, exposed to the elements can produce a huge variety of expressive material to work with. These environments provide potential all year through, the variety of which can change as the seasons and weather wash minerals onto the rock surfaces and temperature extremes fracture the exposed surfaces. What at first appears to be a dull and uninviting space given a little patience and focus can reveal hidden treasures; juxtapositions of colour, geometrical lines and shaping of form from which suggestive images can be derived. Much of this imagery is open to interpretation though which for me makes it all the more powerful but possibly for some it is just a pretentious mish-mash of nothing – but of course that is fine, that is what makes us human, we all have our own mind.