I’ve been at an event all this week called Uncanny Landscapes with contributions by some really interesting artists and academics. Though originally sketched out by Freud, the event organisers write that the uncanny, ‘represents that which upsets, disrupts or disturbs our engagement with the world around us’. The London smogs of the early twentieth century were thought to have invoked the uncanny given the sensory deprivation and yet heightened sense of porosity between self and environment. I searched my photography archive for something more contemporary and found this image made in 2011 of the River Lea as it runs up between Hackney Marsh and Eton Manor. Bearing in mind this is adjacent to the London 2012 Olympic Park you might be surprised by the loss of any sense of urban atmosphere as well as the disappearing sense of perspective in the mist. I’m not sure the photograph truly invokes a feeling of the uncanny but, that said, the selective framing has created a mood slightly different from that which I remember at the time, while standing with my back to the busy A12! Certainly this week has given me some inspiration and ideas for the future.
Could be the setting for Elizabeth Jane Howard’s ‘Three Miles Up’ one of the most uncanny of tales. Great photo! Regards, Paul
I’d not heard of EJH, sorry to say, but no doubt your comment primed my noticing her interesting interview in this weekend’s Guardian. Many thanks.
I just read this interview. I had absolutely no idea that she had led such an interesting life; I didn’t even know she had been married to Kingsley Amis. The things you learn…