When I first started taking pictures, most were landscapes. It was a subject that surrounded me, was easy to get too as I was too young to drive and was rewarding. As I got older, I started to watch more television and films, which were also an influence.
One such film was a based on a book by J L Carr, called ‘A Month in the Country’. It was released in 1987, but I saw it on video a little after that. The film was very influential for me and had an impact on the way I shot my photographs for quite a while afterwards. The influence is still there today, but diluted.
It did not seem to be available for a while, and in recent years I think the British Film Institute bought the rights. I have purchased the dual disc version with the Blu-Ray disc.
There are only a handful of scenes that influenced me as above, but to see them again was a very enjoyable experience. The use of a slight haze on the tent in the field, the picnic scene in the church yard and the scene with the rabbit in the woods immediately come to mind. They are a small part of the film but I found them heavily influential. If I had not seen the film recently, I would probably have told you that there were far more scenes like these. In fact, I think just the countryside in summer was featured enough to be as influential on it’s own as well.
