Tim Parkin Analysis

Tim Parkin Analysis

‘Scattered’

Tim Parkin discovered landscape photography at a late age and was infected with a large format obsession that culminated in an exhibit of one of his photographs at the National Theatre as part of the Landscape Photographer of the Year awards.

In this photograph titled ‘Scattered’, it is clear that it has been photographed in a forest / woods that has a river running through it. The forest floor is covered in copper coloured leaves and the trees’ leaves have turned from green into hues of yellows and oranges. This suggests to me that this image was taken during the season of autumn. As there is still greenery around and can be seen in the photograph, I would assume it is either early autumn or mid-autumn, opposed to it being almost winter. The water looks almost blurred in some parts of the image which implies that the water was flowing very fast, and also possibly that the photograph was taken with a slow shutter speed. When looking at the river, you can see the faint outlines of rocks which suggests that the river is not too deep. One thing that I had noticed after looking at this image for a while was that no animals can be seen, nor any traces of them. Due to this I would think that this photograph is not as remote as it seems and that perhaps it’s the presence of people that cause this.

I was not able to find a meaning for this photograph and why it was taken; but as landscape photographer, I am guessing that Parkin took this photograph to show cast the beauty found within woodlands. The way the water has been captured in this photograph looks rather mystical as there seems to be a glow coming from it in some parts. If this was done on purpose, or even by accident, perhaps one meaning behind this image is to remind us of those fairy tales we were told when we were younger involving magical forests, and that magic still exists within nature. I feel that this photograph also shows that beauty changes over time, in the summer, bright green leaves and flowers would be what is in place of what was captured, which was brown and yellow leaves. Alongside this, there could be the point that beauty comes with age as the leaves turning brown represents another year that has passed, where leaves have grown and then slowly withered away with the coming of the new season. Another idea to add to those is that trees have always been considered as wise when personified, so possibly Parkin was showing that with age comes wisdom from experiencing things both through living them and observing them.

I really like this photograph as I think it has captured the essence of autumn beautifully by the comparison of still tress and settled leaves on the ground to the fast flowing waters of the river, which show that winter has not set in yet. There is such a wide range of different coloured leaves captured in this image proving, in my eyes, that autumn itself is just as beautiful as summer or spring. I find this photograph rather magical as the river gives off a glow, and the leaves completely cover the forest floor, almost like a carpet.