The Secret Garden

Light on Water 7 © Caroline Fraser 2012

If your art work had to represent a literary work what would you choose?

That is the challenge put forward by the Sevenoaks Kaleidoscope gallery .

Having read the brief, I pondered for some days over how I could link my current work to the brief. I wasn't getting far until I considered the project that I am currently working on, 'Light on Water' . These images have been created from a pond that I visit, deep in the woods in the heart of suburbia.

Light on Water 5 © Caroline Fraser 2012

It occurred to me that this pond has become my very own secret garden; a place that nourishes the spirit and gives pleasure, just as the garden in The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett does for Mary Lennox.

This story is one of my favourite books from childhood, describing how the discovery of a wild and secret place transforms the fortunes of the sickly, unhappy child, Mary Lennox.

My wild and secret place also lies close to home, just as in the book.

It is a secret place for me.

I have never met anyone there whilst I have been there. Today I spent some time there with my camera, but also I took a notebook and wrote some words..........

The Secret Garden

The pond lies deep.

Unknown to most who pass her by

on the other path

to the top of the hill.

A secret place,

a refuge.

Shared only with my dog who stirs her up

and wallows in her murky bed.

Thirst quenched,

body cooled.

With each passing different patterns emerge

in this, my secret garden.

A place to play. 

Wind and  water  do their part;

transforming surfaces

from

leaf, branch, tree, bud

rain, drop, 

light.

giving pleasure

giving life.

Light on Water 6 © Caroline Fraser 2012

I will continue to work on this series regardless of the brief, but it may inspire me to work a little harder.

Summer in suburbia...........the sky should be blue

Roses © Caroline Fraser

The image above was showing until yesterday at the 4th Greenwich Annuale at Viewfinder Gallery, Greenwich.

I returned to the same site today to find a very different view; the roses have turned to hips, and there were light clouds in the sky. One of the criteria that I have self imposed for my contribution to the London Villages Project London Villages Project with my series "Seasons in Suburbia" is that the sky is blue. This was not a problem in May, as we had blue skies almost every day; summertime is proving more of a challenge, but I shall try to stick with this , as I feel it adds to the slightly surreal view of suburbia that I am trying to create. The same view a few weeks later has less impact with a cloudy sky.

Rose hips © Caroline Fraser

As I strolled with my dog this morning I carried my newly refurbished Rolleiflex. Looking through the viewfinder with everything reversed slows me down, and with only 12 frames on a film focusses the mind on composition, lighting and finding the best viewpoint for a particular subject. I find myself standing in the middle of the road to get a perfect shot of a house or tree, as each image costs a significant amount unlike  digital images that can be discarded by the hundred. Taking my life in my hands I tie dog to a fence post and leave her while I wander around in the road, dodging cars as they pass by. I took a perfect shot of two trees, only to realise further down the road that I had forgotten to focus the camera in my excitement over metering with a hand held meter using the road as my grey card.

Sunflowers © Caroline Fraser

These sunflowers caught my eye on a grey day last week, but they look so much better on a blue sky day.

One of the joys of the London Villages Project is the extraordinary variety of ways in which individual members interpret the brief. At the monthly meet up last week I heard about the Transition Network and the projects in London that are working to

 " support community-led responses to climate change and shrinking supplies of cheap energy, building resilience and happiness"


I love the idea of building happiness; something that we all have within our power to do.

Jonathan Goldberg, an active LVP member has been exploring Transition Towns across London as his contribution to the project, with some beautiful portraits of individuals who are actively involved in their local communities. Growing vegetables on a railway station platform in Kilburn, or campaigning against another runway at Heathrow, these groups are passionate about their local environment and communities.

As regards my project, waiting for blue skies has been the main problem through August; roll on September, when the Indian summer traditionally graces us with its presence, and I shall be out looking for autumn colour in the gardens of suburbia. 

Hawkwood ; a sanctuary in suburbia

Hawkwood by Caroline Fraser | Make Your Own Book

There is a real feeling of an end in sight for all the members of my course; today most of us have been busy printing off our final assessment of our projects, getting work ready to hand in tomorrow, and wondering how we will fill all the time that is suddenly going to become available. Already some of us have found time to read a novel, go to the shops and have a lie in. For myself, I find this weekend that I can suddenly sleep again; a welcome relief after weeks of waking up at 6am thinking about what else needs to be done. I was able to enjoy a walk on the beach at Camber without worrying about the time passing and feeling that I should be somewhere else. Most importantly of all, I actually wanted to take some photographs, something that I have been avoiding for the last 3-4 weeks, as I didn't feel I would have time to process them. I feel quite excited at the prospect of having some time to think.

So it is with great pleasure that I release details of my book "Hawkwood"; a very personal project for my family containg a poem I have written for them,with photos taken there in the last few months. Hawkwood is a haven in suburbia, owned by the National Trust. I have walked there countless times, and as I describe in my poem, it has kept me alive through good times and bad. My hand made book with the same title is still not right; I need to work on getting the paper and format perfect. In the meantime this softcover book will have to do. It forms another strand of my work for the London Villages Project in which memebers of London Independent Photography record their chosen localities within the London suburbs.