Gallery Notes - Smallness
Mountain talk among commentators often uses terms like 'conquest', acknowledging the challenge of mountaineering, and the overcoming of sometimes huge odds in favour of Nature. But to speak in this way misses the point that Nature still reigns; she has relaxed for long enough to permit a visit, yet man remains individually vulnerable, insignificant and small.
Of course man's poetic insignificance is being challenged in reality from all quarters; collectively he is not an insignificant species. For all man's concerns about climate change, he is ultimately concerned for himself, not for the Earth and Mother Nature. She will survive in another form. And man will adapt, as man has for countless millennia. But what a tragedy for the soul it will be if we allow nature's work to be defaced.
Smallness can be depicted anywhere, and this collection is all about people in the landscape, about scale, and about solitude. Even in the UK, landscapes can feel immense; take yourself into these images and feel the distance ...
