Foreign, Foreigner
Exploratory and introductory projects to new topics (be that a country, a social group or a geography) are common in fine art photography. Foreign, Foreigner serves this purpose as an introduction to my academic and photography practice in the UK.
Documentaries tell stories through objects, buildings, people, and occasionally landscape. When one of the former is missing, it is felt that it is no longer such. But landscape alone, as portraits alone, can have significant documentary value.
I am planning a rather long range documentary project, staged in units that may be independent from each other and still constitute a coherent body of work. This is the first stage, a pure landscape project. It is intervened landscape, and hence, it also tells or at least suggests, a story.
I have explored areas that were close by and interested me: the lower river Thames towards the estuary; then following the coastline northwards through Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk, to King’s Lynn. As expected, the work has given me clues and ideas to explore down the road.
I am somewhat familiar with the UK, but the project title intends to match my impression: a new country, a foreign land in which, at least for now, I am also a foreigner, and seen as such.
This project, will have a second part: a double click at one of the locations I photographed, still tbd. I has helped me to get a grasp of the lay of the land, the light, the ever-changing skies, and the colour pallet.