Wood - Land

Falmouth MA Photography

Informing Contexts PHO 720 WIPP

Dawn Boon

‘the greatest single ecological catastrophe that ever occurred in England’

Statement of intent

Wood - Land is a critical exploration of the catastrophic effect of draining the fens and the questions it raises. Using the abstraction of black and white medium format film photography to explore the Silver Birch woodlands of Holme Fen and surrounding land (one of the very few fragments of ancient wild fen that still exists today). When the woodland dried out it became the largest Silver Birch woodland in lowland England, it was still too wet for farming and remained as ancient natural fen. It is the lowest land point in Great Britain at 2.75 metres below sea level and sits on the edge of what once was Whittlesey Mere (the largest lake in southern England at 3 miles wide). Holme Fen is now a nature reserve, the meres have islands and shallow banks which encourage birds, dragonflies and marsh plants including over 500 types of fungi, the reserve is now a designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). Wood - Land engages with the altered environment highlighting the changes that drainage of the fens has left - land shrinking and habitat destroyed. This work was created in a place where past and present collide and the future is fragile and uncertain. The intention of this work is to provoke discussion regarding the “catastrophic” change in habitat of the natural fen with its fragility and resilience. I want to evoke a sense of what is and what was, by using a methodology of repetition, revisiting of locations, showing the juxtaposition of the woodland and the agricultural land that has been formed because of the drainage.The work is not a resolved body but will in time record the future of this woodland fen and its rewilding. The photographs from this body of work is presented in a flipbook helping the viewer engage with the shifting landscape.