Landscape Revisited

On October 1st I visited Scarborough Art Gallery where there was an exhibition of photography and art by Joe Cornish and Kane Cunningham. These two artists have worked together over the past year using old photos, drawings and paintings of the area to both inspire and challenge themselves.


The exhibition was very small and intimate, with the work of both artists, and the inspiration where appropriate being shown together. Each image had a brief explanation of its inspiration and challenge.


Kane commented that often they spent whole days doing nothing but discussing landscape and structure of images. Joe commented that most of his work is in the preparation - maps, light direction... No more than 3 shots would be taken for any desired image.


The image below is "Staithes, moonlight December 2010" and in real life is approximately 6' by 4'.

This was inspired by the works of Atkinson Grimshaw and his images of moonlight - a subject rarely attempted by Joe.


The immediate impact was of colour, vivacity, clear reflections and details of the minutiae of daily life - a beautiful image !


The focal point to which your eye is initially drawn is the brightly illuminated house on the left at the bottom of the cliff. From here the eye can follow the estuary curving down to the bridge - then across the bridge to the bright lights of the village. From here the light pulls you up, through the buildings to the cliff and thence to the moonlight and then back to the initial focal point. The cliffs and the estuary follow the 'rule of thirds'. The lines of the estuary, bridge, lights through the village and finally the breakwater form a circular path for the eye to follow - never tiring of the images it sees.
The roof at the bottom right hand corner runs almost parallel to the bridge, again bringing the eye back into the circular path. The foreground to the bottom left lies as a triangular shape, within the bottom third, devoid of bright colour - a rest to the eye before it pursues the circular path again.
The moonlight comes in almost centrally from the top - feeding into the circular path described.
The colours are bright and vivid - reds, orange and yellow dominate - full of life- warm and happy colours, with the sky and moonlight bringing tranquillity.
The depth of field is exceptionally broad, with every image being crystal clear - most apparent in the full size. Yet seeing the image again it is reminiscent of paintings of medieval towns such as Bruges - both in the shape of the buildings and the colours.
Did I like this image - yes it was emotionally uplifting and pleasing - I really grinned as I saw it!

A second image is " Hole of Horcrum, winter. January 2010". This is a deceptively simple winter snow scene, sized approximately 8' by 4'.

Initial Thoughts:
This is a scene of snow covered trees along the foreground with snow covered gentle valleys beyond. Note the very high horizon.
The image appears simple and pure. There is dappled light to the fore so the foreground of snow shows shadows of the branches and footprints of the animals and birds. Yet again the micro detail was excellent. I was left with the desire to walk into the photograph and touch the snow - almost smell it!