I came across the work of Jitka Hanzlova when researching in John Bergers book ‘Ways of seeing’ and as I discuss this in some detail there (see blog post ‘Forests’) I won’t repeat myself here. However, it is relevant to show some of Hanzlova’s work and touch on how I feel it could relate to my own practice and inform some of the next steps for me.

In thinking about my 7801 project, I talk a lot about my own personal landscapes, the places I grew up and have revisited over time. Hanzlová’s photography in her ‘Forest’ body of work, explores how the places we might have called home (further to my essay ‘notions of home’, the idea of home is not just the house that you happen to live in) shape our identity. Given my own motivation for photographing landscape, it is relevant for me to study her work and understand how she manages to powerfully portray this.

Excerpt from Yancey Richardson Gallery, ‘Having experienced the trauma of fleeing her native home of Czechoslovakia in 1982, Hanzlová has created an oeuvre that engages with notions of belonging and alienation, utilising surprisingly varied subject matter. In the series, Forest (2000-2005), Hanzlová photographed the forest near her childhood village, transforming the empty, wooded landscape into a symbol of memory and loss. Her strong sense of history is an important element of her work…’

Thumbnails from her series ‘The Forest’ …