click photo to enlargeI like the surreal qualities of this photograph that I took in late autumn at Abbeystead Reservoir in the Forest of Bowland, Lancashire. The background is all Gainsborough and the foreground is a bit Dali. You look at the misty sky, the distant hills, the orange trees, the green grass, the chimneys nestled on the lakeshore, the reflections in the water and think, fine - so far, so conventional. Then you look at that rim of water where the reservoir overflows and falls down to a stream and think - that looks weird! But then you notice the stick, drawn to the falling water, but not able to slip over the edge. And you think about the way it breaks the perfect line of the rim. Photoshop it out of existence! That's the next thought. Get rid of it. But I can't.
I'm a bit of a purist and a traditionalist. I don't like to add or subtract objects from photographs. To me doing something like that seems like mixing painting with photography. Now I realise that many people find that entirely unobjectionable. But not me.
Then I considered the stick for a bit longer, and decided that it was an imperfection that added to the appeal of the photograph. In my mind it's like the false mole that women stuck to their faces in the eighteenth century - a blemish that makes the surroundings, by comparison, much better. The stick stays.
photograph & text (c) T. Boughen
