The British Landscape
John Davies
Chris Boot and Archive of Modern Conflict
English
Edited by Bruno Ceschel and Katie Boot
Text by John Glancey
Hardcover
112 pages
405 x 283 mm
2006
ISBN 978095468946
Edited from 25 years of work (1979–2005), The British Landscape is a collation of John Davies’ revealing landscapes. Rich in detail and narrative, and contrasting scenes of nature apparently untouched by humans with tracts of land that have been scoured and pillaged and yet endure, his sweeping images – often taken from a high vantage point – reveal how a seemingly permanent and prosperous society can swiftly decline, leaving only rapidly fading traces of its existence.
(Source: https://archiveofmodernconflict.com/the-british-landscape/)
About the Artist
John Davies’s work belongs to the world of contemporary documentary photography. Faithful to a refined, pure black and white, taken on as the absolute rule of a subtle, analytic style. He chooses the vastness of space inhabited by the powerful elements of nature and the contradictory ones of culture to operate in two directions. On the one hand, the evocation of emotional states through the photographic rendering of a space-light that is alive, almost metaphysical, and recalls the symbolisation of the forces of nature in Turner. On the other, a crystal-clear gaze that sounds the material aspects of the contemporary landscape, which is tied to the development of the productive activities and concrete structuring of the world through the molding power of economy and property.
https://www.johndavies.uk.com/
(Source: https://www.michaelhoppengallery.com/artists/123-john-davies/)
About the Publisher
Chris Boot is a photography curator and book publisher. He was director of Photo Co-op in London, director of the London and New York offices of Magnum, editorial director at Phaidon and was previously executive director of Aperture Foundation. His company Chris Boot Ltd has published a broad range of photography books.
(Source: https://artuk.org/discover/profile/chris-boot)
The Archive of Modern Conflict is an organisation dedicated to the collection and preservation of vernacular photographs, objects, artefacts, curiosities, and ephemera. Founded in 1991, the archive began as a collection of photographs relating to war and conflict but has since expanded its remit to become the vast and thematically diverse repository it is today. They have produced and published over thirty books, often collaborating with photographers and artists such as Stephen Gill, Cristina de Middel, Thomas Mailaender, Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin, and Don McCullin.
https://archiveofmodernconflict.com/
(Source: https://archiveofmodernconflict.com/about-us/)
