Requirement
12 photographs
Instructions
- Select a small area of landscape of about 1 acre
- Produce an essay on this area with a wide range of images, including 2 o 3 close-ups
Images and review
Images taken in 2010, whilst living in Switzerland. This is the assignment done first. Unfortunately, I have had no opportunity to return to this location to respond to the tutor's comments, except for another shots taken of the Church in its surroundings (image 1) which I have since added to the blog (see below).
Tutor's comments
Overview
Some thoughtful images here...I identify with some of the things in your images, some
of the habits and peculiarities of the Swiss and their country are quite unlike her neighbours...telling that this can be explored in quite a confined area, like a church and its yard...good observational skills
Further study
Look at these landscape practitioners. They all explore aspects of land and/or identities, without being pre-occupied with aesthetics or the picturesque:
- Robert Adams
- Fay Godwin
- Simon Norfolk
- Ingrid Pollard
- Martin Parr
- Simon Roberts
1. Church
My
‘One Acre’ is the Swiss Reform church at Kilchberg, a small lakeside suburb of Zurich, a window into the Christian and other values of its residents.
...would have been good to see some of the agriculture juxtaposed with the church...nothing really critical here unlike other images.
 |
Originally taken for the exercise on perspective,
this image shows the Church at end
of the path and amid the surrounding
growing wheat fields in June |
2. Tower
The
Swiss generally prefer substance over style in way that goes deeper than the
reformist Protestant tradition. No surprise then that the church building, like
so much of Swiss architecture, is bland.
3. Clock
If Christianity is the main religion, then measurement and keeping of time stands not far behind. The clock tower is commonplace, as are their chimes every 15 minutes, day and night. The Swiss hate being early for an event nearly as much as being late.
4. Thomas Mann
Only
the rebellious few stand out from the crowd, reassurance against the anxiety of
being ostracised. In keeping with this, most of the headstones in the grave
yard are uniform in shape (rectangular) and inscription (the name of the
deceased and his or her year of birth and death). Just so for Thomas Mann, the
German novelist, the cemetery’s most renown resident.
5. Headstones in a row
A
sense of order is much prized in Swiss
life. Stereotypically, this virtue makes the trains run on time, lest chaos strikes. As in life, so in death. Most
of the graves in the cemetery are laid out to a precise pattern.
... wonder if you could have photographed the regimented graves even more regimentally?
In terms of sequencing, I like the way this image is place between the 2 'tall poppies'
6. Military presence
Despite
the Swiss reluctance to be a tall poppy, a handful of graves have spectacular
headstones. This one commemorates an infantry commander. The military plays a
significant part in Swiss life, much more a network than a fighting force. But how glorious is war, especially from 20th century onwards? The forging of national character or the slaughter of innocents?
7. Child death
Again
this grave of a 13 year old child is another justified ‘tall poppy’. Unusually,
it has an inscription: ‘His life for an Edelweiss’. This and the shape of the
headstone suggests that Walter Strauss died in a mountain accident. The Swiss
sense of hygiene is also at work here. The headstone is almost 90 years old,
yet it looks like new. Who is still alive in 2010 who would have known
him?
8. Flowers
Which
relative is planting this rich array of flowers at this grave nearly 40 years
after the death of Milli Naegli-Zoebeli? None, probably. The
church employs a squad of gardeners that keep the cemetery looking like a
Victorian public park. The money to pay for this comes from the public taxes.
9. Visitors
In
fact, other than the gardeners it is unusual to see visitors to the cemetery.
These two men talking in the garden of rest are a rare sight.
10. Tulips
Tall
poppies may be shunned but tall tulips not.
11. Water
Water
flows through Switzerland from its mountains to numerous lakes and rivers. Its
engineers pride themselves in controlling these flows. So no garden of rest
would be without its calming pool.
12. Reach up
Finally,
in death ’into Gods hands we commend our souls’. This statue with arms
outstretched stands at the entrance to the cemetery and reflects the aspiration
that the souls travels to heaven above and not to hell below.
