The British Landscape: Photographs by John Davies closed on 4 February 2007. For details of our current exhibitions, take a look at our what’s on page.
John Davies’ large-scale black and white photographs tell stories about social and industrial history, progress and change. This exhibition presented some of his finest work.
From his early photographs of the Lake District and Scottish mountains to the industrial and post-industrial landscapes of Sheffield and Greater Manchester, Davies’ images are rich with information about the social history of Britain. Mostly taken from an elevated, meticulously-staged position, the images reflect the changing British landscape.
The British Landscape featured some of John Davies’ finest black-and-white photography from 1979 to the present day. These works reflect his primary concern with the impact and history of human settlement upon the land, rather than the idealisation of the countryside that the word ‘landscape’ often suggests.
Accompanied by the publication The British Landscape, produced by Chris Boot, the exhibition was first exhibited by PhotoEspana, Madrid. Davies was nominated for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize for this show.
About John Davies
John Davies made his first photographs in the mid-1970s, initially concentrating on landscapes of rural Britain. In 1981 he made urban Britain the focus of his photography, documenting the changing industrial and post-industrial landscape. His photographs have been exhibited across the world in galleries as diverse as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Pompidou Centre in Paris and the Royal Academy of Art in London.
