Western Skies

Harry Soames (b. 1985) is a British photographer living in London. For this first exhibition, Soames is premiering a body of work which takes as its subject the wild, untamed beauty of the Scottish landscape; specifically, the area of west coast and the Outer Hebrides. It is a highly evolved and personal project for Soames, who spent much of his childhood in Scotland and has spent years engaging with this rough, sparsely inhabited and undeniably beautiful area.

Soames began his photographic career in his early twenties, working as an assistant in the studio of Mario Testino. Here, he learned how blurred the worlds of high fashion, portrait and fine art photography have become. He has since shared a studio with Alex Bramall; a well-known photographer who was previously head of the Testino’s Production and Archive. From Testino and Bramall, Soames learned what he refers to as the ‘magic’ of photography; broadly defined by him as the camera’s ability to capture moments of beauty but also to create unique, individual worlds. It is with this background in mind, and in the spirit of finding new things to say and dramatizing landscape, that Soames’s photographic series of Scotland can be understood.

In these images, Soames taps into the essence of the Scottish highlands; a rugged landscape where beauty and violence - in terms of climate, history and politics - have lived side by side for generations. In his determination to forgo a typical landscape, Soames eschewed beauty spots and tourist vistas, instead focusing on overlooked and underpopulated settlements. At the core of all these images are a celebration of space; the wide, expansive emptiness which evades those of us who live in cities. Many of the photographs are predominately focused on the sky, taking up at least half or even two thirds of composition. It reminds one of Constable’s fascination with clouds and his determination to try and capture their transient energy. In fact, the energy and frenetic quality of Constable’s studies are what the photographic medium can go perhaps further to capture centuries later; in many of Soames’s images, we can clearly see the quick pace of weather turning. Grey clouds on one side of one image rapidly descend across empty plains and low-lying mountains, turning white and cloaking mountains in a milky veil. The sharp rays of a sunset turn palest blue clouds a dramatic shade of ochre. Soames has managed to capture these fragments of change by, as he says, ‘sitting and waiting for the perfect moment’. At the heart of this body is work is a real sense of trying to understand landscape, a commitment to watching and learning from it and a great effort to communicate what it feels like to be humbled by this special place.

It is important to point out that in their attempt to capture the scale and emotion of Scotland, these photographs are not in any way a geographical survey. Whilst they do record a great sense of the terrain, they connect with art history and, arguably, have more in common with painting than photography. Soames names James Morrison and his Scottish School as a major influence, and the two artists share a keen personal interest in the changing landscape of Scotland and commitment to staying – physically – in one’s environment to capture a moment in time. They also bear a similarity in spirit to the etchings and watercolours of Norman Ackroyd, who, like Soames, is London-based yet travels to the furthest echelons of the British Isles to find inspiration. The work shares a muted palette; inky blues, coppers and greys are used to create images which are both atmospheric and highly evocative. When working on this series, Soames thought a lot about the work of Andy Goldsworthy, the famous British land artist and environmentalist who now resides in Scotland. Goldsworthy, who belongs to a tradition of artists making transient or ephemeral art in the landscape, is extremely reliant on photography to communicate his ideas; as the artist says, ‘Each work grows, stays, decays — integral parts of a cycle which the photograph shows at its height, marking the moment when the work is most alive. There is an intensity about a work at its peak that I hope is expressed in the image.’

The philosopher and political thinker Edmund Burke categorised ‘the Sublime’ in art as referring to Romantic paintings that lead to a complex web of human emotion; of overwhelming terror and awe that viewers experience whilst looking at nature or outstanding natural beauty. It is difficult to define -particularly in the face of modern technology and travel - this unsettling yet strangely wonderful feeling. This sensation is what Soames has managed to capture in this body of work; photography which celebrates vastness beyond comprehension, darkness turning to light and that remind us how light our trace is upon the Earth.

If you would like to request a catalogue please email office@soamesstudio.com.