Jem Southam

Jem Southam (b. 1950) is one of the most critically respected British landscape photographers working today. Celebrated for his important contribution to colour photography in Britain, Southam documents subtle changes in the landscape in relation to the passage of time.

So, Southam’s subject is the rural landscape of the South West of England, where he lives and works. His photographs are characterised by the observation of cycles of decay and renewal within nature. He returns to photograph a single location over the course of many months and years. He layers and juxtaposes these images to reveal subtle changes and developments in the landscape. Recording nature’s entropic instability. His large and detailed colour photographs, captured with a large-format camera. Also often focus on mankind’s place in the environment. Therefore, showing the impact of human settlement on the natural world. Conversely, these images also capture the psychological effect of the environment on man, interrogating our cultural mythologies of natural formations and landscape.