A Modern Picturesque - cyanotypes

At this time, I was inspired by early Victorian landscape photography, particularly that of the amateur recording projects of Warwickshire in the 1840s who recorded local customs, festivals, landmarks and people.   One concerned photographer in particular, Richard Keene made a statement in 1844 that the picturesque landscape might still be experienced ‘within five or six miles of home’ and then listed suitable subject matter in categories such as ‘crags, brooks, …’. This became the starting point and a challenge, and the resulting titles of my images.   The picturesque landscape is rarely connected with contemporary art or photography. What are pleasure and a sense of escape for some, is false consciousness and a cliché for others. In spite of our awareness that many landscapes and places are constructed to suit our imagination (and literally in some cases, especially with the use of digital application), any political and social unrest that presides is ignored.    What started out as a reasonably humorous quest and experiment now seemed naïve and weighted with preconception. Through my own interpretation of Keene’s categories (such as finding crags in SE Essex), I hoped to humour and broaden the notion of the picturesque whilst experimenting with the Victorian cyanotype process from highly enlarged 35 mm negatives and a final image that is ‘broken’ into pieces.