Studio Brief 2 - Tell an Untold Story Pt 1: The Visual Journalist - Critical Incident

Critical Incident: 

New Years Day 2015 - The Peak District

Wrapping up warm with multiple layers of thermals, big socks, wellies, wooly hats, scarves, gloves and a flask full of hot coffee, my Stepdad, 11 year old brother and I set out for a long walk in the peaks.

Snow had been everywhere a few days before hand but luckily it had began to thaw and my Stepdad decided to take us right down into the Cheedale valley for the walk of a lifetime.

I have had my fair share of walks around the Peaks, specifically in the hills surrounding Buxton where my mum, Stepdad and brother live, however I had never been into the wild untouched areas we were exploring that day.

Beginning at the top of the world, we stumbled and slipped our way down the side of a huge set of hills with a luminescent quarry lightening up the gloomy winter sky in distance. The quarry happens to be the largest in the country and looked very out of place amongst the wild nature of this countryside landscape.

Here are just some of the photos I managed to take on the 5 hour long journey (some with my phone and some with my DSLR although I had to spend a day recovering the DSLR photos and lost a load of them due to my rubbish SD card corrupting - hey ho!) Oh and I also apologise in advance for the amount of photos I have put up here....it was so hard to stop!

After walking for a good 4 hours and basking in the different shadows, glowing greens, the sounds of the trickling Wye River and enjoying the shelter from the high speed winds and rain hammering the world outside of the Valley - we came to one of the most magical places I had every been.

We were right in the heart of the valley, soaking wet from the hail stone, massive valley walls surrounding us and heron's flying over our heads. It was here we turned a corner and found something really unexpected...

Finding the stepping stones was a great experience. The river water level was so high when crossing, it was hard to make out the stones beneath it, so when walking across them - it felt like walking on water. Each set of stones enabled you to view the surrounding landscape from a different perspective, everything was so vast and tall it made me feel quite insignificant in this wild place. Here the wild definitely ruled.

There were so many things on this walk that inspired me.The main thing being this really did feel like a journey and a worthwhile one. I had no idea about the stepping stones and I felt that making it to them and getting to effectively walk-on-water was the highlight by far.

Other highlights along the journey included:

• The crazy light down in the valley...everything looked ultraviolet - green (if thats even a thing). Everything was covered in moss and ferns and having this glowing at you in the darkness created an almost other worldly feel, like I had stepped back in time and a dinosaur was going to pop its head out from around the valley cliff corner at any moment. 
• Tarantula tree - Many of the trees growing on the valley floor looked as if they were giant furry tarantula legs sticking out from a hollow in the ground.
  
• The hiding place - Two huge rocks had fallen from the cliff top and had slumped against each other creating this perfect cave-like den and shelter.
• Radio bridge - A bridge we had to cross to continue on the walk. A tree had fallen into the river we were crossing because of the high winds and when walking over the bridge, the water hitting the tree branches sounded like muffled voices of the radio. We looked behind us and up on one of the surrounding trees, there was a warped area of bark on a tree that looked identical to a big ear. The tree was listening to the radio!
• Snot rock was awesome! -Other than the amazingly appropriate name and scale of these surrounding cliffs, the colour of the cliff walls down in the valley were something I had never seen before. Bright red and oranges and as the water from above the valley trickled down over the cliff, it made the rock look like it was covered in...well..snot - permanently soaking wet as the water corrodes it. 
  
• The plants themselves were a highlight as most of them only grow in this specific valley
• The viaducts, although absolutely huge and made of stone, they did not look out of place in the valley, and helped add scale and frames to the landscape.

Collections & Souvenirs

Whilst on the walk I really tried my hardest to gather everything I could by way of research. Not only did I take many many photos and videos, I also asked hundreds of questions of my mountaineering Stepdad, took instant photos, snot-rock rubbings, sketches and collected items to bring home with me:

This experience and all of the research I have gathered tells me one thing - this is the story I want to tell and it is what I want my picture book to be about. It is such a huge task to do this location any justice by way of artwork but I have connected with it so strongly that I can't pass this up. Who knows, maybe someone will see my final book, whatever I end up doing with it, and will want to take a trip to this place to experience it for themselves?

Concerns

I am a little concerned that this may be a little late in the game to be changing my idea completely. I have found some great research before this trip and knowing it is kind of going to waste is a little worrying. Hopefully now that I am truly inspired by my location, the work, ideas, concepts and process of creating final artwork for this brief will come a lot more naturally. I just I hope this decision to change is the right one and that I do this amazing location justice with my final book.