Matthew Murray's atmospheric landscape images inspired by walks on Saddleworth Moor

Murray, Matthew ORCID: 0000-0001-8956-8062 (2017) Matthew Murray's atmospheric landscape images inspired by walks on Saddleworth Moor. British Journal of Photography: Journeys (7865). pp. 20-21. doi:9 770007 119135

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Image (Saddleworth: Responding To A Landscape series the exhibition, publication and symposium in the November issue of British Journal of Photography © Matthew Murray)
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Abstract

- How and when did the Saddleworth, Responding to a Landscape project come about? I was invited to exhibit work at Unseen Amsterdam in 2013 - I'd exhibited work the previous year - a series of Ska portraits that was published by Schilt Publishing, Amsterdam. I'd just stated researching Saddleworth Moor and had started to produce a series of landscapes - the success of this series at Unseen work gave me the scope to develop the project over a longer period of time. - Why did you want to make this work, and what approach did you take? I wanted to produce a series of landscapes based on how I felt rather than what I saw - at the time I had very deep personal challenges and My father-in-law whom I was very ill with Vascular Dementia I along with my girlfriend became his full-time Carers - I gave up commercial projects in order to do this. The series became a very personal project and visits to the Moor gave me me a periods of time for reflection. - What drew you to Saddleworth? What is it like as a landscape? The work initially was photographed around the locations of the trophy photographs Ian Brady and Myra Hindley had taken of one another - places where children had been buried or areas where Keith Bennett's body had never been found. This series became more than just crime scene photographs and the initial reasons for choosing locations became a point of departure. I was influenced by the Dutch Painter Jacob Van Ruisdael who's work I had seen exhibited at the Royal College in 2006. The work became more about light, composition and the beauty of the moors throughout the different Seasons of the year. - How did you work with the landscape you encountered? The work produced came from long walks in areas I had researched and some I hadn't - when I found a landscape I liked I would set up - listen to music, usually Nick Cave or Philip Glass and wait and shoot and wait and shoot. I photographed throughout day and many times throughout the night. When shooting at night I would light the landscape with artificial lighting, external lights, torches, car headlights, I wanted to interact and manipulate the landscape. - What did you want to convey overall through this project? I've never shot landscape work before this is the first time I have ever shot a series of landscapes. I didn't have any preconceived ideas of what the series would become if anything . The work developed overtime and was very organic. I shoot many personal projects which feed onto my commercial portfolio become exhibitions or publications. This was a personal project, that has grown from each shoot. There is also a publication coming out Martin Barnes Senior Curator of Photographs at the Victoria and Albert Museum has written the forward Artist Richard Billingham and Maartje van den Heuvel curator photography and media culture University of Leiden have both also written essays for the book -

Item Type: Article
Article Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: British Journal of Photography, Saddleworth Responding To A Landscape, Landscape photography, Landscape, Exhibition, Gemma Padley, Simon Bainbridge, BJP, Journeys
Related URLs:
Subjects: N Fine Arts > N Visual arts (General) For photography, see TR
N Fine Arts > NE Print media
N Fine Arts > NX Arts in general
T Technology > TR Photography
Divisions: Schools and Research Institutes > School of Creative Arts
Research Priority Areas: Culture, Continuity, and Transformation
Creative Practice and Theory
Depositing User: Matthew Murray
Date Deposited: 25 Oct 2017 15:42
Last Modified: 31 Aug 2023 09:22
URI: https://eprints.glos.ac.uk/id/eprint/5076

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