Throughout this Landscape project I have carefully considered the impact that us humans have had on the landscape that we share with nature, I wanted to show how the modern 21st century demands that we require to go about daily life, impacts on the gorgeous and wonderful Pembrokeshire National Coast Park at Milford Haven, where there are several very large oil & gas refineries that receive daily influxes of supplies via ship before distributing it all over the country via all manor of transit such as rail, road and even pipe. However circumstances led me to abandon this and I decided to focus on not so much the historical impact that man has had on the Pembrokeshire but the evolving relationship that he has had with the Pembrokeshire Coast, today it is a world renowned tourist attraction that leads thousands upon thousands of visitors to it's awards winning beaches and quaint towns on a yearly basis. However The Pembrokeshire Coast Path wasn't always there to bring in visitors, and the region isn't always in tourist season, so I set out to document a 10 mile stretch of coastline that I felt epitomises the relationship from Industrial & even military origins to the current tourism hub.
I enjoyed the production of these images as it meant I was able to travel down to West Wales, and even though it wasn't always the best of weather, with rain and wind being prominent, I felt like I was prepared for the conditions not just in terms of my equipment, but also research as I had previously admired works that were taken in more turbulent conditions. I chose to shoot on my digital Sony system as I would like to utilise the sharp 35m & 50mm prime lenses since I was shooting for an exhibition output, I would also prefer it for a quick turn around of images while based down in Pembrokeshire over the Christmas period. I shot the photographs in RAW to provide me with as much control as possible in post-production where I used Adobe Bridge to organise & edit, with Photoshop also being used to lightly correct exposures and treat highlights before printing. The Print Spaces' own pre-set was installed before sending them a high resolution TIFF file.
The final series of eight photographs follow the coast from the small mining village of Amroth, that shows visible coastal erosion along the cliff façades and the eagerly awaited tourist season as a caravan sits unused outside an empty pirate themed bar on a rather dull day. The vast rocky expanses of Wiseman's Bridge is next where we join the former railway route from the other nearby mines at Stepaside, bound for the harbour at Saundersfoot which is empty during this time of the year, with the resident boats seeking refuge in the not so busy car park. We end with the final sunny print of Tenby's South Beach, with the man produced tyre tracks leading to a period of history in the regions existence, the fort on St Catherine's Head and the somewhat high rising hotels that will become full once Spring truly arrives.
I very much enjoyed helping with the setting up of the exhibition space in the run up to opening night, seeing my work in a large format being hung in a gallery was a very rewarding felling. I also think that the committee did a fantastic job in making everything clear for everyone to get on with what they needed to do on time, I was relieved to find out that my delivered print was sharp and clear for the exhibition, and when finally mounted that the dimensions were also correct.
If I was to undertake this project again, I would definitely place more effort into my time management, as I am happy with the images that I have, but I also feel that with more careful planning I would have been able to get a couple of more shoots done down in Pembrokeshire, which would have expanded and possibly enhanced my final edit. I also would liked to have a more consistent theme of composition in my final edit, where I have shot my subject head on like I received in my 1:1 feedback, as the image could possibly have flowed more easily together.
