Peter Heaton – Reading the Landscape
When Beverley Art Gallery re-opened in early July it did so with two new exhibitions, one a photography exhibition which I was asked to review by the Friends of Beverley Art Gallery for their newsletter. This is what I wrote. The exhibition is open for some weeks yet. Let me know what
Peter Heaton is a professional photographer who studied at Nottingham Trent and Leeds Metropolitan Universities. His well established Vale of York Darkrooms in Stillington provide a base for his digital and traditional development courses.
This new exhibition at Beverley Art Gallery exhibits some of Heaton’s black and white landscapes taken whilst walking the Yorkshire Wolds. A lover of nature, inspired by writers such as Robert Macfarlane it is unsurprising that Heaton wishes to express his concerns, impressions and emotions beyond the photographs he takes. As Heaton identifies in his introductory notes to the photographs there are obvious limitations to their use as records. As John Berger rightly says in his essay
In order to overcome this perceived deficit Heaton experiments with overlaying words on the pictures themselves in an attempt to add a wider experience for the viewer. They appear in different scripts, sizes and transparencies. “
The photographs are lovely. Well crafted and composed. The words sometimes meaningful but sometimes more challenging to set against their backdrops. The idea is not new but uncommon and whether it works open to question. I found the words sometimes detracted from the images but that is the fun and fact of any artistic endeavour. It is up to you to visit and see for yourselves. It is certainly provoking and reminds us of the increasing fragility of our natural surroundings in these fragile times.
The exhibition is now open and good one way social distancing measures and tracking are in place.
Nigel Walker
* The John Berger quotation in my reveiw comes from Understanding the Photograph, a series of essays edited by Geoffrey Berger and originally published ( but now as a Penguin Cassic) in 2012.
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