Artist research - Andy Sewell

Andy Sewell produced a project on Hamsted Heath, a small path of beautiful landscape in the vast busy city of London. With the place once being part of the countryside surrounding London, it's now a green fragment deep within the urban landscape. The heath is full of ancient trees, ling grass and thickets enough to get lost in, even just for a short while. Sewell took 5 years to produce this project and spent many, many hours walking the heath in all weathers to get some amazing photographs of the place.

He said in the book prologue 'I go to the heath to be somewhere that feels natural, but I know this is no pathless wood', This means he goes there to get out the city for a bit and into nature, even though it'll never be like the real countryside, a breath of fresh air and seeing some trees can always boost your mood and motivation. Also in the prologue 'The heath is as managed as any other part of  London, but managed to feel wild', giving that little bit of escape but still what you'd except to find in a city.

In a way the work is about the perception of what is natural, but also is an attempt to explore what E.O. Wilson called the human condition of 'Biophilla'.  Biophilla is a condition where you are drawn to somewhere that feels natural, trying to seek connections with nature and other forms of life.

These images were put together because Sewell wanted to try and convey his version of the heath and why he went there. 'Convey something of what I was looking for and what he found'. whether that be himself, the connection with nature and the rural side of things, or just to get some fresh air outside of London. The work he produced is amazing and is something that I feel would really help influence my landscape images of the allotments, and the greenery to it all.

Below are a few images from his book that I thought were really influence to my work and I really liked.






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