Latin for “pleasant place”, locus amoenus is a literary term which generally refers to an idealized place of safety or comfort. A locus amoenus is usually a beautiful, shady lawn or open woodland, sometimes with connotations of Eden. This work made during my second year at IADT made me look at the landscape in tandem with lots of reading about landscape photography.

Landscape painting in the 17th and 18th centuries created what we believe to be the idealised landscape. It came to be known as beautiful and created how we perceive it today. This series of images challenge this notion. The landscape is framed by wire fencing found on the borders of Irish farming fields. When I exhibited this first I make a one off square format box with 9 images inside. They were intended to be postcards as I first envisaged it. Not exactly to challenge the John Hinde notion of Ireland but certainly influenced by it.