One on my photographs from the Lost Villages series is featured on the Verve Photo website this week. 

There is also some text about how I captured the landscape photograph. Please take a look below;

From the series “Lost Villages“. Skipsea, East Riding of Yorkshire, England.2011

Neil A. White (b. 1972, England) is a photographer and teacher currently living in London. Growing up in the north of England, Neil would escape to the countryside whenever he could. This fascination with the natural world and contrasting environments is at the heart of his photography and an infinite source of inspiration. Neil received and MA in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography in 2006 from the University of the Arts in London, adding to his BSc in Engineering Management. Work from his Lost Villages series has been published in The Guardian Magazine and Geographical Magazine and was highly commended in The Environmental Photographer of the Year competition in 2011.

About the Photograph:

“This photograph is from a series called Lost Villages. The Holderness coast located in the North East of England endures the highest rate of coastal erosion in Europe. The devastating consequence of this is villages and land slowly disappearing into the sea. This project explores the constant battle between the North Sea and the mainland, and to document the irreversible change-taking place on this coast line. I had actually taken the picture of the road and packed my equipment up and started to walk back to the car. Then in the not so far distance I saw the man and dogs walking towards me and thought this could bring something else to the picture. With moments to spare I quickly ran back, got my field camera back on my tripod frantically put a film case in the back of the camera and took the picture with literally seconds to spare. It all happened so quickly I was worried that I may have made a mistake. When I saw the negative from the lab I knew I had a great photograph. It was one of those rare times in photography when the elements came together and I really felt everything come together.

You can see the website here;

www.vervephoto.wordpress.com

Resource Magazine recently featured and wrote about my series Lost Villages. 

Please have a read below. You can also see the the feature here;

www.resourcemagonline.com/2013/04/neil-white-captures-a-land-in-limbo-with-lost-villages/

Neil A White Captures a land in limbo with Lost Villages
We, as a nation, are no strangers to lost communities. Cities enveloped by tornados, made into rubble by underground fires, coastlines and homes eaten alive by hurricanes. This may be why White’s “Lost Villages” series strikes such a cord.In his collection, the British photographer paints an austere and potent portrait of a coastline of small towns unloosed by fast decay and resigned to their inevitable disappearance. The setting for the series is the Holderness coastline, a peninsula of vulnerable cliffs in Yorkshire England.

White focuses not only on the landscape (doomed by quickly eroding soft clay) but also the towns that live along the coastlines. Indeed, the images are arresting: trailers perch like birds on a wire above the sea; a paved road ending in barriers at the edge of a cliff; fish and chip shops devoid of costumers – towns of daily life. As if on life support, it will breathe until it cannot.

“My work tends to be reflective and is often quiet and deeply personal. The relationship humans have with the natural world is of great interest to me and this is a common thread that runs through much of my work.” White was inspired by a variety of sources-artistic, historical and sentimental-temperaments, unsurprisingly evidenced in “Lost Villages.” In his photographs, one can see the hands of British landscape artists William Turner and Jon Constable and modern artists like David Hockney and photographers like Nadav Kander.

“My fascination with the natural world and contrasting environments is at the heart of my photography and an infinite source of inspiration. My work explores the relationship between nature and the modern world, and how they co-exist, sometimes harmoniously, more often in conflict with one another. I see this conflict as one of the key dilemmas of modern day existence.”

One of the reasons he was drawn to Holderness, possibly the most important reason, was because it was very close to where he grew up. As a child, White and his parents would take day trips to the area, in particular, a town called Withersea. “Returning to this stretch of coastline as an adult after so many years, [it] helped bring back fond memories of playing on the beach, my grandparents close by keeping an eye on me from their deck chairs.”

White was also fascinated by the history of the region and the lost villages of the past. In particular, a place called Ravenser Odd. Noted in the history books as a medieval “new town,” it was founded in 1235 and a thriving seaport by 1299. The sand banks of town, much like the modern villages of Holderness, began to recede and after a series of storms in the mid-1300s, nearly all of the inhabitants fled. Ravenser Odd was consumed by the sea. A lost village in a watery grave

White will continue to document the erosion of the Holderness peninsula and the effects that it has on the communities that still exist along the coastline. He is also working on a new landscape project in the Himalaya mountains called “When the wave come from the mountain.” The series will look at how the global climate change is affecting the glaciers in the region, creating lakes, some of which are very dangerous.

“The current situation and human challenges the world faces as a result of how much the climate has changed in the last hundred years is something I am very passionate about and care greatly about the well being of nature. This new work will have quite a focus on this and will be completed in the next few months.”

Since returning from Asia I have been very busy putting my new project together about glacier lakes in India and Nepal. 

Everything is coming along really well. All the sheets of filmed have been scanned and processed. I now have a edit which I'm still finalising. Currently I'm spending allot of time   researching and writing. 

During this time I come across some really beautiful painting during the "little ice age" in Europe. This was a period of global cooling which happened after the mediveal warm period - about 1350 to 1859. Here is a selection of my favorite paintings.

Pieter Brueghel the Elder, 1865

Hunters in the snow, Pieter Brueghel the Elder, 1565

Winterlandschap met schaatsers. Netherlands Circa 1608

Merrymakers skate on the frozen River Thames in this 1677 painting by Abraham Hondius

Hendrick Avercamp

This painting by Birman in 1826, Mer De Glace, France

Phil Commes, picture editor at the BBC has written about my series Lost Villages today on the BBC website. 

You can see the article here along with photographs from the work;

www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-22025150

This is what he wrote;

For the residents of Skipsea, on the Holderness coast in the North East of England, coastal erosion is a fact of life. As the years pass the village has seen the sea claim more and more land and its future is far from certain.

Photographer Neil A White's Lost Villages project documents this constant battle between the North Sea and the land in this part of the British Isles, one that endures the highest rate of coastal erosion in Europe.

He was drawn to this coastal area as it is near where he grew up and one that brings back many fond memories of playing on the beach. "It is estimated that up to 32 villages dating back to Roman times have already been lost to the sea," said White.

"The historical events which took place on this coastline are fascinating," said White. "Since Roman times it is estimated that a strip of land three and a half miles wide has been washed into the North Sea.

"One lost village, Ravenser Odd, is particularly significant. Described as a medieval new town founded in 1235, it was also a thriving sea port. At the height of its fortunes in the early 14th century, Ravenser Odd was a town of national importance, regularly supplying the king with two fully equipped ships and armed men for his war with the Scots.

"It had a royal charter, a market and annual fair, a town mayor, customs officer and other officials, as well as numerous cargo ships, fishing boats and warehouses. There was also a court, prison and chapel. Shakespeare's Richard II also speaks of a town called Ravenspurg (Ravenser).

"By 1346 it was recorded that two-thirds of the town and its buildings had been lost to the sea due to erosion, and in the years that followed, from about 1349 to 1360, the sea had completely destroyed Ravenser Odd. It is the history of this particular village that has been an important inspiration for this project."

Today it is Skipsea that is on the front line. There is an annual rate of land erosion of nearly two metres, and in just over a year of working on this project, White has seen the coastline change markedly. His pictures chronicle those changes to the coastline and the man-made structures that cling to the earth, hoping to be spared a watery grave.

I am really pleased to have a feature of work from my Lost Villages series in this month Geographical Magazine.

Writer Mark Rowe has written a really interesting article about the issues surrounding coastal erosion on the Holderness Coastline in North England

If you get the chance please have a look at the magazine. There are lots of other really interesting features and articles too.

You can find the magazine here;

www.geographical.co.uk

Please take a look at the feature here.

I'm really pleased to have a photograph from my Lost Villages series featured on Flak Photo

You can see the photograph on the Flak site here;

www.flakphoto.com/photo/neil-a.-white-untitled

The full series with text can be seen on my website;

www.neilawhite.com/lostvillages.html

Delighted to have work from my Lost Villages project in the Big Picture section of the Guardian Weekend Magazine.

www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/gallery/2012/jun/01/photography5?newsfeed=true

Here is some new work from my Lost Villages project. 

Today was the first day I could bring myself to listen to the Beastie Boys since the passing of Adam Yauch. For some reason I found it too upsetting but may be I should have listened to my favourite band sooner. As always they gave me a positive sense of perspective, put a smile on my face, made me think about shit and so much more. With whats happened though their music has taken on another dimension, something like that anyway.  Musically, the Beastie Boys always made sense to me. Mixing up Hip Hop, punk, funk, jazz along with samples its mind blowing. Getting the balance of humour along with heavy issues, well that’s just damn right amazing. When you listen to the Beastie Boys you learn stuff, real stuff! Adam’s activism work was so important. He brought the plight of the Tibetan people to many, my self included. Personally he was and continues to be an inspiration and at times a guiding light. I never met him (slapped his hand once at a BBoys concert) but know a few people who did and all say the same, he was one of the good ones.

Adam will be missed deeply. He put so much out there but  can see so much love coming back at him.


Gratitude, respect, love…

Adam 'MCA' Yauch 1964 - 2012 

Recently spent a week on the east coast of Yorkshire working on my Lost Villages project. The weather and light was almost perfect which was very lucky for this time of the year.

It is now almost complete although I have been saying that for a while. I have been enjoying shooting it so much its hard too put a completion deadline on it but I finally feel the work is at point I am happy with. The new work and edit will be online next week.

While shooting the project I have been constantly taking other pictures, just for fun really. A selection of these are below from the recent week up north. I'm always seen to be drawn to rubbish and I made a new doggy friend.

© Neil A White

© Neil A White

© Neil A White

© Neil A White

© Neil A White

© Neil A White

© Neil A White

© Neil A White

© Neil A White

© Neil A White

A few weeks ago I went to the new David Hockney exhibition - A Bigger Picture at the Royal Academy in central London.

Was so looking forward to seeing his new and old work. It didn't disappoint. Much of the work is from my neck of the woods - East Yorkshire which makes it more special for me personally. Beautiful work and so inspiring. The larget room - The Arrival of Spring - Woldgate, East Yorkshite records the tranistion from winter through to late spring on one small road in 51 prints done on a iPad and one large painting. Quite mind blowing!

Highly recommended!!

http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/hockney/

A few of my favourite paintings are below;

The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire in 2011

The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire in 2011 - iPad

Three Trees Near Thixendale, Spring 2008

Woldgate Woods, November 2006

The Road Across the Wolds

I recently came across these wonderful Kodachrome 5 x 4 photographs from the 1940's. They really are quite stunning.

Here are some of my favourites.

Check out this site to see lots more;

www.shorpy.com/image/tid/179