Output details

Common

Heron’s research for ‘Common’ builds on previous series ‘Forest’ (2000) and ‘Woodland Photographs’ (2000–6), and examines how social, political and cultural histories and narratives of landscapes are represented through photography. ‘Common’ focuses on Chobham Common, adjacent to the M3, where Greater London meets the rural landscapes of the South East. One of the oldest forms of landscape, the common is a lowland heath, a nature reserve, used for recreation. Its history includes early farming, the inspection of soldiers en route to the Crimean War and military training during World War Two. Its proximity to Shepperton Studios has installed it in our popular imagination through its use as a location for numerous British films from ‘Carry On’ to ‘Lawrence of Arabia’.

These fragmentary histories, the presence of a rich mix of trees and plants (pine and deciduous, grass, fern and gorse) and seasonal changes, together serve to alter and subtly adjust the visual topography and the relationships between the immediate locale and perspectival viewpoints that suggest other or imagined places. These changing relationships were systematically documented over the course of the year using a view camera. Some pictures were made from the same viewpoint, all under consistent lighting conditions and in the absence of any human activity, drawing attention and foregrounding stillness and subtle topographical changes to the landscape that extend the visual imagination.

The images are framed, printed and exhibited so as to immerse the viewer in the landscape and its histories. They reference contemporary photographic works by Jem Southam and Guy Moreton in emphasising a pictorial structure that enables place and location to be read critically and imagined, and are equally influenced by Iain Sinclair and Patrick Keiller whose works explore, through literature and film, the intersections of topography, history and mythology.

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