Another photographer whose work has explored the notion of politicised landscapes is John Darwell in his book, Dark Days (Dewi Lewis Publishing, 2007), which documents the 2001 UK Foot and Mouth Epidemic in the Lake District.

Here Darwell explains the work:

“This work produced around my home on the north side of the English Lake District looks at the Foot and Mouth epidemic that swept through the UK in 2001 and became one of the most devastating and significant events to affect the British countryside within living memory, the aftershock of which will continue to shape the future of the countryside for decades to come. The images look to all affected areas from the Lake District fells closed to walkers to the measures farmers went to in order to keep people away from their farms for fear of infection, to the destruction of millions of farm animals and onto the now notorious pyres. The work then continues by recording the extraordinary efforts undertaken by farmers to eradicate the virus from their buildings; and finally the third part of the work looks at the aftermath of the disease and the gradual reopening of the countryside whilst asking questions about the future of the agricultural economy as more and more farms were put up for sale.”

And here are a selection of the photographs:

Dead lambs by roadside © John Darwell, 2001

Roadside pyre © John Darwell, 2001

Barricaded farm entrance, Southwaite © John Darwell, 2001

Farm gate protest sign reads ‘1 of Blairs Killing Fields’, Lorton © John Darwell, 2001

Disinfection bowl, Near Carlisle © John Darwell, 2001

Disinfection mat on the A6, Shap © John Darwell, 2001

Closed picnic site on M6, Carlisle © John Darwell, 2001

Smoke on road, Welton © John Darwell, 2001

Footpath sign closed, Carlisle © John Darwell, 2001

Bangladeshi schoolteachers disinfecting their feet © John Darwell, 2001

Explaining this last picture Darwell comments “this photograph was taken on the first day the fells were open after the lifting of some the access restrictions.  I went up Kirkstone Pass to see what was happening.  There were dozens of people prepared to go through disinfection to get onto the fells, mostly runners and keen walkers.  Whilst I was watching a coach arrived and dozens of people got off, the ladies in saris and sandals the men in linen suits.  They had just arrived from Bangladesh and were on their way to Ambleside to begin teaching at the college there.  The coach driver being either a comedian or not quite on the ball suggested a nice walk on the hills to get a sense of the place, hence their first experience of Cumbria was having to place their feet in buckets of disinfectant before walking up a soggy hillside.  I had a long chat with some of them and after some initial bemusement most seemed to find it quite funny and an experience to take away with them.”

You can see more images from Dark Days on Darwell’s website here.

A book of Dark Days containing 150 colour images plus text pieces by  Liz Wells,  Professor Roger Breeze, U.S. government advisor on animal epidemics and viral warfare and Alison Nordstrom, Curator of Photographs, George Eastman House, was published in March 2007 (Dewi Lewis Publishing). It is one of the most complete body of images produced during this period and stands as a testament to those ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events (and political incompetence!).  It is a work that asks a number of searching questions, either explicitly or implicitly, about the future direction of food production and of the countryside we wish to visit.

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