Nicholas Hughes

Posted in Uncategorized

I’ve followed Hughes’ work for some time. I saw his most recently completed project. The Sound of Space Breathing’ at The Photographers Gallery. The project is solely concentrated on the footpaths leading to the coast, near his home in Cornwall and took 7 years to complete.

I am interested in how his use of layering creates such an arresting image, with seemingly endless detail and depth. His use of black and white for this series has added melancholy and a phantasmagorical element to the work. A significant part of the process would have been in the darkroom, refining the layers and working out which images combine with the best results. His mastery in this is awe inspiring and having seen the images up close, I appreciate how ambitious they are.

In the photograph below, it almost looks as though you could walk in to it and never meet the end. The luminous aspects of the image reveal its rich tones. I can see shadows and traces of leaves and branches, as well as the more easily definable elements, which gives a surreal effect. The astral quality by including a photograph of a very clear night sky (these appear a lot in his photographs) adds an ethereal element. These qualities combined mean the resulting image has a sense of the conscious and unconscious, with themes of memory, impermanence and impending change.

There are some parallel interests with my own work, regarding the relationship between human beings and the natural world, especially where personal history is significant. I am intrigued as to how Hughes’s methods could help me visually reveal my own thoughts and feelings about the landscapes I photograph. I discussed my themes and ideas in detail for my auto ethnography essay, in 2023. The essay was an exploration into why I look to my own ‘places of significance’ as sources of inspiration for my photography and having revisited the essay to study this in finer detail, I can see how Hughes’ work is highly relevant to my own practice.

With his curiosity in ‘cultural walking histories and writers like [Henry] David Thoreau and Rebecca Solnit’ (TPG online) and an ongoing interest in poetry, he interweaves these aspects into his work, including his titles . This is an approach which could help me to interrogate my ideas on a deeper level. I enjoy many creative practices which are relevant to my practice, including nature writing and poetry. Another aspect of Hughes work which I find inspirational is his pace. He talks about the slow process involved in maing his work. He commits himself to observing and listening,’the art of looking is akin to the art of listening’ (TPG online)

Revelations come over time – slow time. It is often in the detail that the greatest insights take place. The wood grain is as the rippled puddle, the spacing of stars in the night sky akin to the flower heads breaking the surface of the pond. Through nature, all makes sense, all things flow one into the other.”

This photograph below, is one I took for 7802. I included it in my final book. It is a single digital image of a branch overhanging the lake (I am studying this lake in closer detail as part of my FMP consideration) I think there are some similarities with the intention here, as with Hughes photographs. Of course, technically they are miles apart but I am less interested in that at the moment and more so in the content. The reason I like this photograph is because of its abstract appearance and it is difficult to see which part is real and which is a reflection in the water. My choice to use black and white was to further enhance this.

I wonder then, how I could experiment with layering images, on digital for now (I have limited resources to do this in a darkroom just yet) to at least understand the different effects that could be created. As I’ve said in other posts, I do like the idea of including mixed processes in my final work and it could be interesting to see how these methods could fit in with a final body of work.

Sources used:

Leave a comment