Jem Southam - 'Landscape Stories'

Jem Southam begins his photographical day in the early morning, before breakfast; take to the countryside of Bristol, Cornwall, Dorset, Devon and Somerset with the camera in his hand. His images seem lyrical, of the hills and the valleys, farms and farmland, coasts and cliffs, streams and ponds, all showing the subtle evolution of that location, transformed by the natural geological process and also human intervention over centuries.

               They all become almost three-dimensional images which show the natural layers of the British countryside/costal countryside and we develop, as a viewer, an understanding of the nature and how it works in these various locations. Created over a long period of time, this series of descriptive photographs show great power from an underlying allegorical language which engages and deepens out creative imagination.

                This book, Landscape Stories, is Southam’s first comprehensive collection of his work, which shows three completed pieces of work; The Pond at Upton Pyne, The Red River and Rockfalls, Rivermouths and Ponds. It also shows smaller pieces of work from series which were still in the making during the publication of this book. Southam’s brief narratives about the places where he has captured, pieced with essays from photo historians, Gerry Badger and Andy Grundberg, create an in depth context for thinking more about these fascinating landscape stories. 

Southam, J (2005). Landscape Stories. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. Front fold.