The Thames and Severn Canal – Not an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty

Introduction

This assignment interprets the brief in the same way that I want to challenge my landscape photography;  by questioning what is a beautiful landscape.  

Before commencing OCA study, my photographic practice was largely what I called at the time ‘landscape’ but during my studies I have come to realise that I was approaching photography in the way described by Godwin “I am wary of picturesque pictures, I get satiated with looking at postcards … The problem for me … is that they are very soft warm blankets of sentiment.” (Godwin 1986, as cited by Alexander, 2015:64).   Essentially conforming to a certain ‘look’ often seen in numerous photography magazines:  “The formulae derived from picturesque conventions reduce novelty and variety to secure uniformity. The picturesque makes different places seem like each other… Over time, its homogenising habit dulls with sameness and familiarity.  (Andrews, 1999:129)

Studying Part 1 of the course, and particularly Exercise 1.3, I was particularly surprised to realise that these conventions did not begin with photography but go much further back to landscape paintings.

During earlier OCA studies, I came across Keith Arnott and his series ‘Area of Outstanding National Beauty’.  In this series,  “Arnatt addresses what he characterised as the ‘conjunction of beauty and banality.” (A.O.N.B (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) – Keith Arnatt – Key Works. An overview of British Photography – Hyman Collection – British Photography, 2020).  His work was captured mainly in the Wye Valley and shows scenes not typically associated with beauty, it inspired me to consider more fully what is beauty, and who decides? This work was a key factor for me in allaying my fears of returning to landscape photography and so I chose to use his work as a prompt for this assignment.

I myself live in an AONB, The Cotswolds.  I regularly walk along the local Thames and Severn Canal but the canal itself is excluded from the AONB due to its industrial past and the industry that is still based there.  Figure 1 shows the narrow exclusion zone of the canal denoted by the non-green shading on the map. 

The canal was built in 1789 (Cotswold Canals – Facts, 2021), itself an industrial construction, built to connect the mills that are built along the valley to the Thames (The Thames & Severn Canal | Cotswold Canals Trust, 2021).  But, there is still beauty to be found.  

Alexander states  ‘In terms of the values that we ascribe to geographic areas, the concept of beauty frequently veers into the discourse of politics and national identities.’  (Alexander, 2015:62); supporting this perspective, this assignment questions the exclusion of the canal from the AONB.

Image Selection

Photographing the canal, I was conscious of the risk that I ended up with a series of images that are simply taken looking along the canal, all very similar.  However, I chose to stick with the same general approach for each image and show simply what is there rather than attempt to overlay some sort of artistic interpretation in an attempt to make the scene look more appealing or to create greater differences between the images, true Photography as Zayas would say (De Zayas, 1913).

I chose to shoot each image along the lines of a conventional landscape formula, shooting along the canal at the centre of the image with the landscape shown on either side and in the distance.  Of course the canal itself is an industrial structure but I also captured the industry alongside the canal.

My shot selection deliberately aims to show the juxtaposition between the classically beautiful scenery and the industrial constructions.   I also considered whether or not to capture the images with people in them.  I decided to keep the people in shot as they represent the area, the fact that people spend their leisure time in the area illustrates that it is attractive to society, maybe even more so than the footpaths nearby which are actually within the AONB yet are usually deserted. The inclusion of people therefore lends weight to the assignment and its questioning of the AONB boundary.

Images

Contact Sheets

Bibliography

Alexander, J., 2015. Perspectives On Place. Fairchild Books, p.64.

Andrews, M., 1999. Landscape And Western Art. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, p.129.

Britishphotography.org. 2020. A.O.N.B (Area Of Outstanding Natural Beauty) – Keith Arnatt – Key Works. An Overview Of British Photography – Hyman Collection – British Photography. [online] Available at: <http://www.britishphotography.org/online-exhibitions/1755/10341/key-works-an-overview-of-british-photography-aonb-area-of-outstanding-natural-beauty?r=online-exhibitions/1755/key-works-an-overview-of-british-photography> [Accessed 07 August 2020].

Cotswoldcanals.net. 2021. Cotswold Canals – Facts. [online] Available at: <https://www.cotswoldcanals.net/statistics.php> [Accessed 3 January 2021].

Cotswold Canals Trust. 2021. The Thames & Severn Canal | Cotswold Canals Trust. [online] Available at: <https://www.cotswoldcanals.org.uk/enjoying-the-canals/about-the-canals/the-thames-severn/> [Accessed 3 January 2021].

De Zayas, M., 1913. Photography And Photography And Artistic-Photography. 1st ed. [ebook] Available at: <https://www.camramirez.com/pdf/DI_Week6_PhotoAndArt.pdf> [Accessed 30 October 2020].