PAUL HART AT FEN DITTON GALLERY - EDGELANDS

The Fen Ditton Gallery have done it again. When other venues shrink from the idea of an exhibition with living breathing people in attendance, this new outfit have expertly organized a show in their lovely village setting, an easy mile-long riverside stroll from Cambridge. It features Paul Hart, the esteemed black and white photographer, and the final part of his sequence about the Fens, entitled Edgelands. It’s a far cry from the high spots of Paris and Milan where his exhibitions were booked to happen this autumn, but these thoughtful pictures are remarkably apt for the strangely emptied world around all of us; devoid of people but in a landscape entirely fashioned by human beings.

The Cambridge Critique has already featured the earlier phases of this three-part study, Fens: Farmed, Drained and Reclaimed and this is the final one, focused more on the Lincolnshire boundary of the area – fitting, as Paul Hart trained at Lincoln College of Art and there in the 1980s was inspired by the mechanics of black and white photography. He still makes all his prints from analogue methods, the dark room and developing film so much at the centre of his art.

Stow Bardoph

Walsingham Fen

Paul expresses his awareness of the region he has chosen again and again for his stark beautiful pictures. He thinks it is especially apposite at this time.

It's not a land that has received very much attention from picture-makers previously so that was quite appealing to me. But also I'm always interested in the human interaction and use of the land, rather than the picturesque."

He recalls the suspicion of local farmers when he first arrives with his kit.

"They usually thought I was from the Internal Drainage Board (Local IDB) making checks on the ditches and dykes. But once I explained it was just "old-fashioned photography" equipment they were generally quite appreciative of my interest in the land, and as one said: 'You can grow anything in this soil, it's as good as it gets.'

And although this exhibition celebrates the quiet aesthetic of the Fens, that last remark from the farmer might resonate into a future where we will look for help to this strange but hugely productive region as times get tougher and supplies get scarcer.

Meanwhile here is a stunning show, well worth the breezy stroll this weekend towards the region more and more significantly at the heart of our nation.

Paul Hart’s last words are significant:

"I hope that my quiet contemplative pictures of quite an ordinary British landscape may resonate at this time when we've all been forced to look a little closer at our immediate surroundings."

Booking is essential

Sea bank