Mapping the landscape
My interest in landscape is rooted in the fact that so much of the world we live in is shaped by human beings and the economic and social forces unleashed by our success as a species. I do not seek out the dramatic image, nor look for studied mundanity, instead I try to get underneath the skin of a place and understand the forces at play that shape its character and moods.

I am very familiar with the fens, having lived here for years and sketched them on a regular basis. But for this project I felt a more methodical approach was required. I started with Ordnance Survey maps, making my own large drawing from them, covering the whole area. I paid particular attention to names – like ‘Fodder Fen’ – as they give a feeling for place and history, and to the rivers and drainage system, to understand the forces shaping the area.

The Ship of the Fens
I needed a focal point and Ely Cathedral was a natural choice – The Ship of the Fens as it is known locally – which appears on the horizon in many of the photographs. Three distinct areas of fen lie around Ely, and I found I could fit these into a circle 20 miles wide. I then divided the circle into 12 sectors by points of the compass and had my working map and methodology.

Not only did this make it easy for me to explore the area, it helped me understand how sun and weather pass across the landscape and so anticipate the light direction and angle at particular times. Late in the day, working in sector nine would put the sun behind me, and underneath any cloud cover, looking back towards Ely.

I soon had a good mental map of the area. The predominant first impression was visual and atmospheric – wide skies, shifting light, tall poplar windbreaks. Soon I knew where to go and could anticipate what I would find. Later, each area began to tease out differences in farming patterns, in crops and rotations. Some areas favour salads, others root vegetables and others celery, which needs deep, black soil. But overwhelmingly the landscape presents itself as a centre of intensive farming – of mass production and distribution – highly mechanised and shaped by the supermarkets that exercise so much control over it.