Field Notes 001

Suffolk

These images are fragments while walking through places. Visual note-taking and memories stored. Glimpses and details of experiences and of looking.

A first visit to this part of Suffolk and a new landscape to explore. This is also a new way of working on photography projects - all a bit experimental and treading into the unknown. I’m slowly learning the process of creating a narrative for my images. It always seemed so unnecessary, and I felt that good photography does not need any explanation. What’s changed? It’s partly my desire to learn how to express myself in other forms - to explore creativity where it’s challenging and see where it leads. Perhaps it’s also about sharing the experience and the process. Experience and process have become so much more important in the last few years, with results taking a back seat. Experience and process are what make the act of creating exciting: being receptive to an environment, a place, to react to events and notice the change, to capture a frame and realise that everything thereafter will look different - that’s exciting, and it feeds a desire to look for more, be more receptive, and recreate the experience over and over again.

In the Suffolk landscape, not far from the sea, the sky, the clouds, and the light grab my attention before anything else. I notice how the sky connects to the land, the fields, the grasses, and man-made objects. The connections are an interplay between them, creating further points of interest and new narratives. Shadows and silhouettes form new shapes. Reflections draw attention to surfaces. Colours and shades are transient and respond to the changes in the sky as clouds slowly drift across the sun. Even the atmosphere becomes visible, and I don’t resist a cliché shot of a rainbow aligning perfectly with my path.

Simple objects in nature do inspire huge amounts of passion, and I’m constantly reminded of how much I care. It may be that this passion is also a cause for heightened perception and awareness of details. A pebble becomes more interesting. Shapes and forms stand out and are loaded with meaning. Textures and surfaces all start to tell a story - a history of events that have left their impression. Spending those moments and capturing those details creates an intimate and personal connection that is difficult to share. I realise that I’m not alone in feeling those connections. My presence is just another one of humanity’s impressions left on the landscape - not that different from the concrete bunkers, the barbed-wire fences, the hunter’s seat, and the cycle track.