Nicholas Hughes

Fig. 1 #18 from The Sound of Space Breathing Verse 3 (2018-21)

The Sound of Space Breathing is Hughes’ latest series, a recent exhibition attended at The Photographers’ Gallery. At first glance there is much here to appeal (to me at least) – beautiful and carefully studied silver gelatin prints of the landscape. And yet for me at least something is not quite right – possibly this is because “technically, Hughes also pushes the limits of his craft, exploiting the photomechanical in the darkroom, often layering imagery to create new, magical scenes that evoke the emotional reality of his environment” (TPG website).

By creating these beautiful prints Hughes encourages contemplation and appreciation of our natural environment (in this case the area close to his home in Cornwall). However prolonged study of these images brings awareness of rents in the time/space created by the analogue layering technique. At best it is mysterious but it can also appear like poorly-executed photoshop. Most viewers are digitally aware now and an attempt to read the images can jolt into the wrong mindset (for example by branches ending inexplicably). At times it seemed to me structures were repeated (as if using a digital inpainting brush without paying close attention to the result), a further step away from a celebration of the beauty of reality?

The detailed pictures of trees could at times be crowded, approaching an abstract painting but if anything the opposite of space breathing. Reflections on water create multiple blown highlights which have become a feature but for me represented tears in the scape – perhaps this is a valid sub-plot?

Fig. 2 #20 from The Sound of Space Breathing Verse 2 (2018-21)

What I found interesting is that it is probably I did not notice all of the manipulations. It is possible that some areas I took to be manipulated were not. However the knowledge of the manipulation sat in my brain like a worm, as if I myself were being manipulated – I did not quite trust the photographer with my emotional response, since he had evoked natural beauty to generate it and yet tried to shape it to his own purpose. Of course post production occurs all the time and in many different ways, some more subtle than others. A line had somehow been crossed for me, however, or perhaps the subliminal thread broken. And, fascinatingly, we enter a sort of double jeopardy in that of course almost every landscape in England is manipulated by man. Perhaps I am missing the point, but I don’t thinks so.

Therefore the pictures that worked for me were the simpler or less manipulated ones (or those that seemed so), able to convey more accurately the emotions I believe they were intended to evoke. I am critical of the work partly because that is the point of these blog posts; I still applaud the sentiment and approach behind it. Hughes walks to his locations from his house, seeking a sensory response to the land.

It is interesting to compare with Hughes’ previous work, particularly his monograph Nowhere Far which collects together several series. The book is beautifully produced by Gost and although sometimes the chopping and changing between series does not flow for me it allows for a much more comprehensive understanding of Hughes’ photography, which often evokes music as an equivalent and complementary emotional vehicle.

Fig. 3 #13 from In Darkness Visible Verse i (2005-7)

The main thing that stands out for me is the use of colour, which provokes emotion in its own right and so puts less pressure on the forms in the frame to do so – in a similar way to how Eggleston’s use of colour allowed him to leave the middle ground notoriously empty. At their best the images “reference”, for me, some of Todd Hido’s work, although it could be argued that Hido manages to achieve more of a narrative for the viewer (perhaps via the selective use of detail i.e. punctum?). This colour is still manipulated, as it is by Hido and indeed by Eggleston, but colour is (as I have discussed many times through the course) already less real and less tangible than line.

If I happen to proceed with photographing the Chelwood Vachery Forest Garden at night, these images may provide some clues at to how to proceed, and also perhaps how not to.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

1. Hughes, N. (2018-21) #18 from The Sound of Space Breathing Verse 3. At: https://www.nicholas-hughes.net/work/the-sound-of-space-breathing-verse-3-2018-2021
2. Hughes, N. (2018-21) #20 from The Sound of Space Breathing Verse 2. At: https://www.nicholas-hughes.net/work/the-sound-of-space-breathing-verse-2-2018-2021
3. Hughes, N. (2005-7) #13 from In Darkness Visible Verse i At: https://www.nicholas-hughes.net/work/in-darkness-visible-verse-i-2005-2007 (Accessed 2.8.2022)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Hughes, N. (2017) Nowhere Far. London: Gost
2. https://printsales.thephotographersgallery.org.uk/exhibitions/34-nicholas-hughes-the-sound-of-space-breathing/overview/ (Accessed 1.8/2022)