After a small flirtation with the idea of photographing project 4x4x4 in black and white, shooting in colour became the obvious choice. I felt black and white would strip away too much detail, and I wanted to pick up on the subtleties of colour in our surroundings. Colour to me seems also that much more realistic: we see in colour, make choices about colour, and even sing about it from football terraces to the school playground. Despite England’s reputation for greyness, there is a whole parade of colours out there, for much of the year anyway.

My first outing took place on a gloriously sunny day in May 2019. I wrote about it in an earlier post. I lost my bearings in Hampstead Heath, and ran out of time! Subsequent journeys throughout that summer were more forgiving, and once it felt like I was gathering a body of work, I started to lay out the prints so I could view them as a set. I was surprised to see how England, as witnessed from these initial images, was looking very pink and green. I think all Brits know the popular reference England’s green and pleasant land, from William Blake’s Jerusalem, but pink was a new one on me! You can see from the images above what I mean.

As time went on, the colour palette shifted, and suddenly there were some strong blues, and pops of red to add to the mix. Since August 2019 I have been sharing my project with the talented curator, educator and mentor Francesca Maffeo, based in Leigh-On-Sea. She felt that some of the richer colours, and bustling scenes of commuters near London’s Blackfriars station, with their contrasty light and strong shadows were incongruous to the rest of the work. It is true, they do stand out, and maybe they will not cut the mustard down the line, but for me they still represent a part of England. Just now, I looked back at my notes from one particular Blackfriars outing. It’s not about colour, but here is an excerpt:

We are not in ancient Rome now, we cannot pace and ponder, there is work to be done - must go to work, must follow the pack, must let my thoughts be controlled,

Lock In, Clock On, Go, go, go!

Sadly, my last visit to Francesca was in January 2020, so she hasn’t seen any new images or discussed this project in a long time.

For those who are not photographers, En plein air artists, or scientists, you may not be so attuned to the light in terms of colour. I worked for many years as a photographer‘s assistant in the world of interiors and lifestyle magazines. Most of the room-sets we photographed were shot in ambient light, or with just a pop of studio-flash for balance. There was one room in a regular ‘location-house’ that was a nightmare in the afternoon if the sky was blue. Because of the exposure time the blue of the sky had enough time to cast a hue across the scene, making everything seem cold: not very helpful when you want to offer sunshine into people’s lives! The colour-cast could be rectified with filters or gels if the light was consistent, but my recollection tells me that clouds would come and go, shifting the colour, and the exposure every few seconds. I suppose it doesn’t matter so much with digital, but these were the halcyon days of film, and in hindsight, perhaps we should have only shot in that room in the morning, but these shoots don’t always go to plan. I waffle on, though it is nice to reminisce from time to time.

I have completed 26 trips now, and can say with some confidence that cloud-cover features highly in the english weather system. There are variations within this; from dark and moody to light and airy. It is a soft-white light which has been most apparent whilst wandering these locations. I think the film stock I have chosen to use (apart from one roll of Ektar) adds to the beautiful rendition of these tones. Kodak Portra has always proclaimed to offer “exceptionally smooth and natural skin tones”, and although I am not primarily shooting portraits, it has consistently produced soft, subtle tones.

For anyone interested in the technical, I have shot a variety of 160 and 400 ASA, though I bought one roll of 800 ASA this winter, so I had better get out with it before that Spring sunshine that people keep talking about comes along. I wouldn’t want everything looking too shiny, or that just wouldn’t be a fair representation of this isle!

As this project swells, I can see there are many sub-groups of images within. One set I have been building is the green-set, but that will have to wait!

May the future be bright…and colourful!

Amanda x