{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1477042"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1477042/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2019LY9288/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2019LY9288/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2019LY9288","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1477042","accessionNumber":"E.339-2019","objectType":"Photograph","titles":[{"title":"Seaford Head","type":"assigned by artist"}],"summaryDescription":"Jem Southam is a leading British photographer, renowned for his  colour landscape photographs. Born in Bristol, he studied at the  London College of Printing and is now Professor of Photography at  the University of Plymouth. His trademark is the patient observation  of changes, large and small, at a single location over many months  or years, predominately in the south west of England where he lives  and works. He observes the balance between nature and man’s  intervention and traces cycles of decay and renewal, combining  topographical observation with other references including personal,  cultural, political, scientific, literary and psychological. \r\n\r\nSoutham uses a large format camera to produce 8 x 10  inch (20.5 x 25.5 cm) negatives that record a high level of  detail. When the pictures are enlarged from the  negatives, under supervision at a commercial lab, they  reveal an entrancing wealth of information. Others are  contact printed (placing the negative directly onto the  photographic paper) by Southam himself, to achieve a  contrasting intensity and intimacy.\r\n\r\nSoutham began the larger series Rockfalls (of which  Rockfalls of Sussex and Normandy forms a part) in 1992,  initially along a 40 mile stretch of Lyme Bay, also known  as the Jurassic Coast. This landscape consists of cliffs  formed over an extended period of geological history,  each eroding in its own particular manner. In 1994  Southam began photographing the south coast of the Isle  of Wight and then in 2005 was invited by the Pole Image  organisation in Rouen to photograph the rockfalls of  Normandy.\r\n\r\nOne of the preoccupations of the work was to reflect  photographically on the manner in which transformations  of the earth relate in our experience and understanding of  different scales of time. Southam also describes a fascination  with the sculptural manifestations of the forces at play in the  processes of erosion, in particular the force of gravity. The pictures  also consider the descriptive capacity of the medium of  photography itself.\r\n\r\nThis pair of images depict the English coast and its geological  counterpart in France, the respective land masses of which  separated 14,000 years ago, a relatively recent event in the history  of the Earth’s geological movement. When presented together, the  Normandy and Sussex pictures lead the viewer to imagine the  landmass of Europe in a continuously fluid single state. The  photographs have a relevance within the current debate concerning  Britain’s relationship with, and approaching divide, from Europe. ","physicalDescription":"Photograph of a coastline. A white cliff dominates the picture, which has a pile of large rocks and boulders at its base. In the foregound can be seen a pebble beach. There are distant white cliffs and a cloudy sky to the right of the image. ","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Jem Southam","id":"A4364"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":".."}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"Paper","id":"x30308"}],"techniques":[{"text":"C-type process","id":"THES258425"},{"text":"digital printing","id":"THES271371"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Digital C-type print","categories":[{"text":"Brexit","id":"THES284570"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2019LY9288"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"EXST","id":"THES49060"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Photographs","id":"AAT46300"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Sussex","id":"x41271"},"association":{"text":"Photographed","id":"x30151"},"note":"Seaford Head"},{"place":{"text":"London","id":"x28980"},"association":{"text":"Printed","id":"x46159"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"2005","earliest":"2005-01-01","latest":"2005-12-31"},"association":{"text":"Photographed","id":"x30151"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Purchase funded by the Photographs Acquisition Group","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"116.8","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":"Unframed size"},{"dimension":"Width","value":"139","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":"Unframed sizes - works will be framed"}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":" Photograph by  Jem Southam,  'Seaford Head'  2005, from the  series 'Rockfalls',  1999 to present.","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"Photography Centre 2018-20:\r\n\r\n\r\n\tJem Southam (born 1950)\r\n\r\n\tSeaford Head and Senneville-sur-Fecamp from the series  Rockfalls\r\n\r\n\t2005\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\tSoutham's series Rockfalls reflects on how  transformations of the Earth relate to our experience and  understanding of different scales of time. These coastal  locations - Sussex and Normandy - once belonged to a  single land mass, but over time geological movement has  led to their separation. The slow sculptural erosion of the  coastline suggests the transformative power of nature.  Together, the pictures also conjure questions of unity and  division in Europe, as the UK plans to leave the European  Union.\r\n\r\n\r\n\tC-type prints\r\n\tPurchase funded by the Photographs Acquisition Group \r\n\r\n\tMuseum nos. E.338 and 339-2019","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null}}],"partNumbers":["E.339-2019"],"accessionNumberNum":"339","accessionNumberPrefix":"E","accessionYear":2019,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2022-03-11","recordCreationDate":"2019-02-14","availableToBook":false}}