Whilst one of these was sent to me, the others are what I’ve bought whilst away and then not sent usually because I’ve forgotten stamps. The four outer postcards are all Lake District. Upper right is Derwentwater and the Catbells ridge. This is probably the truest representation of the place. I could easily find that exact viewpoint and I’ve experienced days like this, clear sky, calm water and that early morning light that creates perfect reflections in the water. It’s a common type of image for the Lake District, hills reflected in the water.
Bottom middle is how I remember Teide. But much more, this image and the fact that it’s a postcard reminds me of the day we decided to walk up Teide. Firstly there was the driving, I drove a left hand drive car for the first time and zoomed off around the winding mountain roads, how I didn’t kill us, I have no idea. We also were not prepared for how the altitude would affect us, so whilst we laugh about it now, it was a bit of a mad thing to do. We worked out that the top was three times the height of Ben Nevis, a ‘hill’ we’d easily walk up and down in half a day. That postcard immediately evokes memories of that day and me being doubled over with laughter as my partner struggled to climb up an ‘ice wall’, he kept disappearing and I’m laughing now!
The image of Wastwater, bottom left is also a memory. A cold night free camping when the official campsite was closed. I would say that memory and others of trips to this area, supersedes my recollection of the actual place.
Top left and bottom right are both Ullswater. I couldn’t say exactly where. I certainly recollect times when I’ve gone out early and watched the mist clear in a valley as the sun warms everything up.
Comments on Graham Clarke
Clarke suggests that “the landscape photograph implies the act of looking as a privileged observer so that, in one sense, the photographer of landscapes is always the tourist, and invariably the outsider.” The exception to this is someone who works closely with a particular landscape and uses photography as a means of documenting something about their life.
I’m thinking along the lines of a farmer. Their work is closely related to the landscape, the weather and the seasons. I suppose that’s in the realms of photojournalism from the insiders point of view.
In the main, Clarke of course is right. Landscape images fall into the category of ‘travel memento’s’, a tourist’s view, or a spectacle of the beauty of nature, ‘picturesque’, the power of nature which will often come under the category of the ‘sublime’ or of course a political viewpoint as in much Fay Godwins work.
Landscape, Place and Environment 