{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1478264"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1478264/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2019LY9277/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2019LY9277/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2019LY9277","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1478264","accessionNumber":"E.338-2019","objectType":"Photograph","titles":[{"title":"Senneville-sur- Fecamp","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. \r\n","physicalDescription":"Photograph of a coastline. Large white cliffs can be seen on the right side, with a stony beach covered in green moss below. The sea meets the beach from the left side of the picture. ","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":["2019LY9277"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"EXST","id":"THES49060"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Photographs","id":"AAT46300"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Normandy","id":"x29041"},"association":{"text":"Photographed","id":"x30151"},"note":"Senneville-sur- Fecamp"},{"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":""},{"date":{"text":"2019","earliest":"2019-01-01","latest":"2019-12-31"},"association":{"text":"Printed","id":"x46159"},"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":"139.7","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, 'Senneville-sur- Fecamp', 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\nJem Southam (born 1950)\r\n\r\nSeaford Head and Senneville-sur-Fecamp from the series Rockfalls\r\n\r\n2005\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nSoutham'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\nC-type prints\r\nPurchase funded by the Photographs Acquisition Group \r\n\r\nMuseum nos. E.338 and 339-2019","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null}}],"partNumbers":["E.338-2019"],"accessionNumberNum":"338","accessionNumberPrefix":"E","accessionYear":2019,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2022-03-11","recordCreationDate":"2019-02-14","availableToBook":false}}