The Evolution of Matt Parker

A re-imagined landscape from a concrete floor

Today’s blog is a bit different – and it is very personal to me

Those of you who have been subscribed to this list for a while will have seen a wide range of images that I have made. They range from more traditional captures, through highly-edited images all the way to completely abstract works.

Sometimes it has all felt a bit of a muddle and that I am sharing a highly eclectic group of images without any direction. Every time something has piqued my interest, I seem to have shot off in a new direction. It was as confusing to me as it must have been to visitors of my website!

I have been struggling with the concept of having a photographic voice for a while now. I want to focus on one visual concept. At the same time, I don’t want to completely restrict myself. And I want to make sure that I can evolve.

Recently, I spent a week in the remote West of Scotland

I attended Rob Knight’s excellent Ardnamurchan Spirit photographic retreat. It is designed to help you respond visually to the landscape in your own style. I thought it would be an excellent chance to try and see the landscape through a wide range of photographic styles. It would be an opportunity to try out new things.

The workshop had participants with a very varied range of photographic styles. I really tried to give making images in other styles a chance. I dutifully pointed my lens at the wide vistas of beautiful seascapes and landscapes lit by glorious, golden skies. But my heart wasn’t in it. I don’t see the landscape in that way.

I stayed in the place where I was happiest: capturing the small details of the landscape that most people take no notice of. I wanted to capture the early morning ice, patches of rust, weeds in the river and the marks on the hulls of boats. I even made a series of images of the inside of Rob’s slow cooker!

When treated in the right way, these simple subjects became something worth spending time with. Something worth celebrating and imagining in new ways. It felt like I had found my visual focus. It has been in my imagery for a while but the workshop gave me the chance to understand this and accept it.

What was my vision really about?

In Ardnamurchan we talked a lot about the difference between intimate and infinite landscapes. Naturally, I tended towards the former! But I felt what I was trying to create was something more than an intimate landscape. I am a great believer in trying to encourage myself and my viewers to see things in different ways.

So now I have decided on the name of re-imagined landscapes. It covers what I see in two ways. Firstly, I may capture some small, intimate detail of the landscape in front of me. But, be it through the composition and framing or the post-processing, I want it to stand out in new ways. I want people to see it differently, to wonder what it is.

Secondly, I may see something which is not a traditional landscape picture: for instance, the inside of Rob’s slow cooker. But, to my eye, some sort of strange landscape resides within these images. I want to show this to others.

Whichever route I take, my work is, I think, becoming other-worldly and increasingly abstract.

Reactions have been positive

I have had people searching to see what the original subject matter actually was. Some have seen galaxies in riverbeds. Others have found new senses of scale in what I have captured.

Pleasingly, I have seen a number of photographers beginning to point their cameras at the ground more! It seems that they too are beginning to see the possibilities in re-imagined landscapes.

So what’s next?

Expect more of these types of images from me. I have recently become captivated by the gallery floor of the Arnolfini in Bristol. I do receive some strange looks from people who think I should be pointing my camera at the art on the walls rather than at the floor! But I have found a huge variety of strange landscapes in the paint splashes and scratches that litter the concrete under my feet.

My old style of black and white landscape is unlikely to re-appear. And I have ditched some of my projects, such as Dead Flowers In Vases. I’m experimenting with different ways of editing, news ways of output and the idea of physically marking my prints as well. And I have rediscovered my love of handmade books.

I am sure that I will shed some followers as I focus on this new direction. What I am creating is not for everyone. But my re-imagined landscapes bring me fulfilment and please and that is what really matters.