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I have always found pictures of woodland scenes difficult to come to terms with photographically, particularly during the autumn. To be in a woodland setting and to experience the colours of autumn can be magical but when I look at pictures I have taken the magic has gone and they look as if they should be on a box of chocolates.
You can read more about the Burnt Norton by going to the Writings section of this website »
Click on any image below to see the details and enlargements.
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 The meaning of much of T.S. Eliot’s poetry is multi-layered and open to interpretation, and the meaning of ‘unheard music’ is no exception. This image is not unlike some graphic interpretations of sound in particular sonograms that are often used to provide a visual interpretation of bird song. With references to birds in this section of the poem, the association of this phrase to the image seemed to sing out to me. |
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Down the passage which we did not take... |
 This passage and the next one in the poem ‘Towards the door we never opened’, suggests a missed opportunity, perhaps a decision to turn back because of the fear of the unknown. The unknown is often symbolised by darkness and I had trouble settling on the colour for this picture. It was only when I darkened it that the image began to work. |
 The common concept of an echo is a sound that is repeated after a short duration of time by bouncing off canyon walls or maybe an alley. In its broadest sense it could be defined as a link in time between two events or a formal link between two images such that a shape in one echoes a shape in the other. Our experience of an sound echo is that it is heard a short while after the initial sound, but are there other echoes that take many years to respond? |
 The first meaning that came into my head for this phrase was that of our first conscious experience of the world into which we are born. The reason is that Eliot makes this world specific, it is ‘our first world’ and so the faint glimmer of light entering the darkness in the top of the picture represents this moment. |
 Each season has its own quality of light, and the sunlight on a sunny day in autumn will have a stark light full of contrast. This can sometimes be enhanced during an unusually warm spell by what we refer to as an ‘Indian Summer’. There are many words in the english language that have very specific meanings, one of which is ‘apricity’ which means ‘the warmth of the winter sun’. I wonder if there is one for the ‘autumn heat’. |
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...through the vibrant air, |
 This could be another graphic interpretation of sound waves with a particular point defined by the ochre band in the middle, like a point on a tuning scale reminiscent of the needle on pre-digital radios. Vibrant, suggests something active, something full of life, or perhaps a creative act where time and place seek to make a connection, a tuning-in to the ambience or the spirit of that place. |
 Of the eight pictures in this series, this is the most objective link between text and image, with the spacing of the vertical bands varying very little in width, producing quite a formal pattern. The dynamic in this picture is produced by the colour and a sense of drama given by the light that permeates through the columns that have acquired solidity in places. |
 My favourite landscapes are on days when you can see the movement of sunlight and shadow across the landforms. It can break down our conventional view of a scene by creating surprise in a dramatically changing landscape. When I photographed the images from this series I often waited for a cloud to pass and when the sun came I became part of that moment of change. |
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