Faye Godwin Landscapes

Faye Godwin

Context
Fay Godwin (17 February 1931 – 27 May 2005) was a British photographer known for her black-and-white landscapes of the British countryside and coast. Born Berlin, Germany, father a British diplomat, mother an American artist. Educated at various schools all over the world. 1958 Settled down to live in London. 1966 Became interested in photography through photographing her young children. Her early and mature work was informed by the sense of ecological crisis present in late 1970s and 1980s England. Her work is a celebration of the British countryside, a lament for what has been lost and a warning about what will happen if action is not taken to preserve it. Through her publishing connections she began photographing writers, primarily for use as publicity material. Godwin’s husband died suddenly in 1976 and at around the same time she was diagnosed with cancer. Godwin recovered, but afterwards the direction of her work began to change. ‘After being ill, I concentrated more on the landscape. In a sense, all the natural things became incredibly important,’ she said in an interview for ITV’s The South Bank Show in 1986.

Photography

In this image we are presented with a road and at the end of this road we can see a mountain. This image makes us focus on the nature in the picture rather than the road. She has added great focus on the mountain because when we look at the image this is the first thing we naturally see as it is the brightest part in the image. Faye Godwin works with tone well because she has created different tones throughout the image, for example the road is a much darker, dull tone whereas the mountain is a lighter tone. We can link this image to the context because she wanted to represent landscape as something we need to protect and if we carry on changing the natural world it won't stay like this forever. This links to the photograph because she has darkened the road to make it seem like it is evil/bad compared to the nature. When we look at this image we can see that she wanted the road not to stand out but by doing this we are more attracted to the meaning of the photo. It can also be linked to her cancer illness, the dark road represents the illness and what she went through but the mountain can be represented as her recovery because it is bright and powerful. 

In this image we are shown a path going through the middle of the picture and surrounding the path we see a field with trees and a fence. This image makes us focus on the field surrounding the path because it looks neglected and the things growing on it look dead, the fence also looks like it is broken. In this image she has used tones again, for example the trees are a very dark tone and the sky is a lighter tone. We would think that she would make the trees a lighter tone to show them off but we can see in this picture that she wants to add the effect to make the deserted field the main focus. I think this is because she wants to show that the field needs to be looked after. This links to the context of Faye Godwin because she wanted to represent the dangers of the way we are living as it is effecting the nature in the world, in this image she is telling us that we have to look after nature otherwise it will end up looking like this. Another message that can also be portrayed from this image is the fact that the man made path and fence is making land look deserted, everything beyond the fence and the path looks neglected and poor. 

In this image we can see the countryside, Godwin has used a variation of tones in this image. The different tones consist of darker ones in the background of the image and lighter tones in the foreground of the image. I think she has used these tones because it makes us think that as the countryside goes on it starts to fade away. In her images she shows the sky with lighter tones, I think the message that she is trying to show is that even though the sky is light the land is dark which tells us that nature is becoming non-existent and less intriguing. This can link to the fact that she wants to celebrate nature because thing image portrays the fact that we have to protect nature otherwise it will fade away. Also, we can relate this image with her cancer story, the darkness in the background represents her past and the illness, the lighter parts of the image can represent her recovery and the future.

Progression

From evaluating Faye Godwin's work I can use various aspects of her ideas in my work. I can use her use of tones in her images when editing my photos I can make pats of the image darker or lighter to send a clearer message. Also I can use her technique of grasping nature in my work by taking pictures of landscapes that portray a lot of nature in them.