Photography exhibition – Man v Nature by Claire Lacey

Today is the launch of a brand new photography exhibition at the Morley College, Westminster in London and it features work by my wonderful photographer friend and blog contributor Claire Lacey of Lacey In Places. Here she shares her photographs on the subject of Man v Nature and discusses how she produced the images:

For my first assignment as part of my Level 2 Photo Imaging City and Guilds class we were tasked to produce a minimum of ten images on one of six categories; portraiture, landscape, architecture, urbanscape, still life and reportage. I chose the latter category. As I had a few trips planned to my home county of Suffolk I decided to set my assignment on my parents’ farm and a former second world war airbase, which is full of overgrown war and farm relics. One of my favourite objects is our overgrown family car from my childhood which never quite made it to the scrapyard and there are numerous other items on the farm which are being reclaimed by nature.   

Therefore I decided to create a series of reportage images to show the intertwining worlds of man and nature, how when the two collide it can sometimes create beauty and depth, but at other times show man has ruined natural beauty.  This project highlights how the traces that man has left behind such as agricultural equipment and building structures which maybe dilapidated or decaying, or imprints in the landscape man has left behind – can create conflicting emotions and feelings.

This project is strongly influenced by photographer Fay Godwin who was convinced the countryside was changing for the worse and her passion for conserving the countryside and documenting the changes. Godwin, created atmospheric, dramatic shots through her use of architectural lines, rule of thirds and repetition in images to show the contrast of nature and man. These images were often bleak and emotive, but at other times showed the countryside at its spectacular best – such as her book ‘Land’. 

Each image in the collection invites the viewer to consider what the two contrasting elements are and whether the opposing forces when combined; create beauty or the man is in fact ruining the countryside. 

The private viewing of this exhibition is at 6:30pm-8:00pm on 10th June 2013 if you’d like to go along and view Claire’s work, along with many other talented London photographers. The exhibition runs from Monday 3rd of June until Saturday 29th June at Morley College Westminster and is open to the public.

Related art and photography articles:

• Neverending mural project (cassiefairy.com)
• One of my favourite photos – Fishing Boys (cassiefairy.com)
• Peeling paint and graffiti (cassiefairy.com)