In Approaching Photography (1982), Paul Hill writes of this photograph by John Blakemore: "This tree appears to be lacerated but only a small detail of it is visible - the section the photographer wants us to see. This image is from a series by John Blakemore called Wounds on Trees. But the metaphoric intention seems obvious, even if we did not know what the series was called."

Blakemore, himself, writes of this picture:

"This image is predominantly transformative: subject and content diverge. The intention is metaphoric, and the reality of the tree is subverted to expressive ends. What was significant for me were the marks in the bark. I thought of these as hieroglyphs of chance, indicating a process of wounding that I came to see as a metaphor for human experience. I was collecting images of such markings as part of a series exploring ideas of the landscape as process. Looking at them in retrospect, I made a connection between my own precarious emotional state at the time and the marks, redefined as 'wounds'. The visual strategies respond to intention; the framing is tight, decontextualizing the fragment and giving no information about the space or the totality of the tree. The light was soft, producing little shadow. Exposure and development of the negative were chosen to give full detail with minimum contrast. The sombre ambience of the final print and the play of light and dark are the product of print controls; the distribution of light and dark existing in the subject was reversed through the extensive use of local print controls that emphasize the 'wounds'. The image is constructed in the darkroom and bears little resemblance to the actuality of the subject." (From 'Wounds of Trees', 1971)


British Photography / The Hyman Collection