Mike Broadway – PhotoBlog

Two mooring lines, Tobermory

The artist Andy Goldsworthy’s mode of work could not be much further from that of my landscape photography: he assembles his art within the landscape, gathering and using materials from the surrounding area, whereas I forbid myself from moving so much as a pebble or twig to improve the composition. What we do and how we do it are very different but there is, for me at least, a resonance in spirit.

I do not mean to suggest that what I do reaches anything close to the creativity, quality or power of Goldsworthy’s art. He imbibes the landscape and then responds in imaginative and painstakingly constructed sculpture; I merely frame what I see and move on. Nevertheless, despite the separation in our talent, technique and skill, we seem to be reacting to similar triggers and I take some encouragement from that. I had lost faith in natural mystery and wonder, my prime motive for making photographs; seeing Goldsworthy’s art rekindled that feeling in me.

Hopefully, “fair use” rules allow my inclusion of a few small photographs of some of Goldsworthy’s sculptures but I am not comfortable using anything larger that might risk crossing the line between fair use and any perception that I might be passing his work of as my own. If you like what you see then you must really go on and find more and larger examples from the references below, from a Google search of your own, or (better yet) by visiting some of his longer lived works at museums around the world.

The above three images are Copyright © Andy Goldsworthy.

See also:
    Conversation: Andy Goldsworthy, Art Beat, National Public Radio
    Andy Goldsworhy: Roof, National Gallery of Art
    Andy Goldsworthy Digital Catalogue DVD (Volume One: 1976-1986)
    Andy Goldsworthy, Morning Earth article