Initial Research

Throughout the MA modules up until now, all my work in progress has had this underlying element to them. By focusing on a specific area or theme each time, I have been able to portray my connections to nature and the outdoors through walking and photography by exploring visually personal feelings and experiences and how I connect with nature to help with my back condition and manage my health and wellbeing.

This developed from observing the things that go unnoticed, which linked to immersion within the environment, then further on to physical representations of the human body within natural forms, to the psychological and emotional factors that compel us to connect with nature as a form of escapism, which linked the ideas of place and belonging.

Fig 1: Ian Brown, 2004-2012, Frenchman's Creek Low Tide

By focusing on walking in particular for the FMP, which was the building blocks and key aspect form my previous modules, I looked back to my third module and the work of Ian Brown (fig 1) Walking The Land and Paul Gaffney (fig 2) We Make The Path By Walking, their different ways of capturing the environment and landscape around them on walks. Both documenting aspects of these that allow the audience to feel immersed in the surroundings. This inspired me to look at my walks in a different way, focusing on the paths and surroundings as well as the immersive aspect of my walks.

Fig 2: Paul Gaffney, 2013, We Make The Path By Walking

My Main focus is my local area of Thanet and the starting point to my exploration of my walks. I discovered the work of Dominic Rose, A 100 Mile Walk From London To Margate, 2021 (fig 3). He document this walk by photographing the environment along the way and discusses how walking near water we can "... permit our thoughts to ebb and flow like the tides, at times lucid, at times drifting unconsciously. Walking simultaneously connects us with the landscape and challenges our embedded patterns of behaviour. There is a clarity of thought at 3 miles per hour." (Rose, 2021)

This is what I aim to portray in my work, keeping that connection and immersion and link it in with the act of walking and the environment for which I am in.

Fig 3: Dominic Rose, 2021, A 100 Mile Walk From London to Margate

References:

Rose, D. (2021). A 100 Mile Walk From London to Margate – Dominic Rose. [online] Dominic-rose.com. Available at: http://dominic-rose.com/uncategorized/thames-walk/ [Accessed 21 Dec. 2021].

Images:

Brown, I. (2021). Frenchman’s Creek Low Tide, 2004-2012. Ian Brown Studio. Available at: https://ianbrownstudio.net/frenchmans-creek-lowtide [Accessed 29 Dec. 2021].

Gaffney, P. (2021). We Make the Path by Walking, July 2013. Paul Gaffney Photography. Available at: http://www.paulgaffneyphotography.com/We-Make-the-Path-by-Walking [Accessed 29 Dec. 2021].

Rose, D. (2021). A 100 Mile Walk From London to Margate. Shop Front Margate. Available at: https://shopfrontmargate.co.uk/collaborations/thames/ [Accessed 29 Dec. 2021].

Figures:

Figure 1: Ian Brown, 2004-2012, Frenchman's Creek Low Tide

Figure 2: Paul Gaffney, 2013, We Make The Path By Walking

Figure 3: Dominic Rose, 2021, A 100 Mile Walk From London to Margate