Taking his thoughts into, and from the landscape resulted in both the title and content of this book. Throughout 2007 photographic artist and sculptor John Harper took ideas generated from earlier land related projects across Britain to what he calls ‘the ordinary landscape’ of Fermyn Wood in Northamptonshire.

The result of the project is a set of visual notations, concepts, and resolved large scale photographic works all taken from this area of woodland, which show the artist’s concerns with visual perception and the questioning of conventional pictorialism. The group of photoworks comprise hundreds of montaged individual black and white photographs taken in the landscape, and subsequently assembled in the studio.

Supported by text transcribed from discussions with Nancy Stedman of the Landscape Research Group, the book also uncovers Harper’s motivation and personal engagement with the land, and what he regards as the associated alchemy of photography.

Published to accompany the exhibition Broken & Breaking Ground at Fermynwoods Gallery, Northamptonshire, March – April 2008.