The Fens is a region of reclaimed marshland in eastern England, which is now one of the richest arable areas of the UK. Paul Hart has been photographing this landscape of agribusiness for over ten years. FARMED (2009-2015) is the first in a three part series on the region. The series is comprised of 56 photographs made by Hart as silver gelatin prints. FARMED was first published in 2016 by Dewi Lewis with an essay by Collier Brown and was reprinted in 2018. Work from FARMED resides in a number of important collections including the V&A Museum and the MoMA Art Library Collection.
“The landscapes in Paul Hart’s series, Farmed, are at once beautiful and beleaguered, full and empty, alive and dead. The disappearances between these conditions are the true subjects. One feels their presence in every photograph....Hart’s photographs raise important questions about possession, ownership, mobility, stewardship, history, memory, perspective - the list goes on. But none of these would matter much if these photographs were not, in their attention to the poetry of the place, earnest and moving ”
