Fay Godwin: The Critique
For this assignment I was asked to look at some of the work of European Landscape photographer Fay Godwin. Upon looking at the photographs, I was immediately intrigued and awed at the hauntingly beautiful images. The landscapes in Godwin’s work seem so vast. There is an endlessness of the images that makes the viewer feel like they can see for miles within the photo. Some of Godwin’s photo’s include images of dilapidated old buildings, gated houses and places that seem slightly out of reach and unwelcoming. These photographs were very interesting on a formal level. Her use of strong diagonal and horizontal line and geometric shapes seem to draw one into the photograph. They make her compositions visually interesting. One does not expect to see such beautiful hard lines in an organic situation like the great outdoors.
One of the first images that spoke to me aesthetically was Image 5. It is a photograph of a wooden fence that is running alongside a hill in the countryside. The positioning of the viewer in this image is close to a bird’s eye view; this has a way of making this image visually interesting by placing the viewer somewhere that is unfamiliar to them. The positioning makes you appreciate the scenery much more by making it somewhere special and unattainable.
Image 18 was another photograph that really captivated me. In this photograph there is a great wide-open landscape and placed smack dab in the middle of “nowhere” is this charming little house and stable. There is a rock fence that mimics the mountains in the background; this helps balance the composition. This photo tells me a story of desperation. Whoever lives there is trying to keep the harsh elements of the world out of their little farm.
Another image that I enjoyed was image 17. This photograph was also taken with a different perspective. This image is set at a worm’s eye view. One feels when looking at this image that one is laying or crawling in the field looking upward and onward at an old church. To me this again seems abandon and unwelcoming. There is a great fence and obstructs your view of the church almost as to say, “You can’t come in.” One gets a strong sense of wanting to enter the church the viewer is drawn to
