Contemplation, mediation and the landscape

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Landscape photography is often associated with the picturesque; beautiful and charming places which delight and draw the viewer in. I have a selection of images by war photographer Don Mc Cullin who present us with a more sublime, fearful landscape which subverts order.

Title	:	Rural lansdscape and round dew pond near Batcombe, Somerset
Color	:	Black and White
Medium	:	Vintage Gelatin Silverwork Print

"I’m probably the only person in England who’s anxious for the winter. As soon as the leaves of autumn start falling from the trees, I become reactivated, the opposite of a hibernating animal. I know that I’ve got four long months of darkness, wind and cold to exercise my masochism. The English landscape’s known for its Constable summers but I’m obsessed with photographing it in the dead of winter, at its hardest … I love the winter – not the climate, but the struggle, its abrasiveness, the nakedness of the landscape." -Don Mc Cullin

Don Mc Cullin's images of the English countryside are very much impacted by his experiences of the war. They reflect a man that has witnessed loneliness death and destruction and experienced depression throughout his life. His images are bleak and raw, exposing the viewer to the darker side of life. Often striking through the contrast in the sky, the dark and light gives the photo an element of hope, a path towards the light. Contrasting with the dark clouds that hover in the distance like a war or army waiting to strike.

 The Battlefields of the Somme, France 2000. Photography by Don McCullin. Courtesy of Hamiltons Gallery.

On a slightly less fearful note the image above shows a landscape masked with the memories of war. The viewers eye is drawn to a lightened path leading to a timeless, unknown place, which one can only hope is promising path. This image is less about what is to come but more about what is left behind.