This afternoon I took down Fay Godwin's Our Forbidden Land from my bookshelf. This is a (somewhat annoying in places) 20 odd year old polemic on behalf of the Ramblers' Association bemoaning the way people in this country are prohibited form having access to walk where they please. The photographs are intended to show how the land is segregated and despoiled. This is not the reason I photograph keep out signs. I like the graphics, the way they decay, and I often see irony in them - particularly on or around nature reserves which are places supposedly intended to encourage people to look at and choose to conserve nature, yet everywhere you look there are signs making sure you only look in the designated places.
Just as interesting to me as the signs of prohibition are the signs directing people to the places they are permitted to set foot. To me they are just as much a part of the restrictions. I think it's time to gather some of my pictures of signs together, and to make an effort to take more. I'll even include some which tell people to keep away from places I have access to because I pay to go fishing there!
Further on from the gates I snapped another 'over the hedge' picture. I'm not sure I'm quite getting what I want from them yet. Then again, I'm not quite sure what I do want from them. Perhaps it's time to gather them together too.
Saturday is the village's Walking Day. The fair is already setting up on the shopping precinct car park. Forty years ago it was held on a mown field. The smell of trampled grass on a summer evening was part of its charm. Both the pageant and the fair are 'perfect' photo-subjects, packed with activity and colour. Will I be able to resist their picturesque charms again this year?
No comments:
Post a Comment