British Photographer Michael Jackson on his Series "A Child's Landscape"

From the artist:

When A Child's Landscape first came together as a body of work, I imagined the prints to resemble sheets from an old expedition log. I printed them small and sharp and on thin rice paper—which suited them perfectly. It was important to me that the print itself continued with the idea of the excitement and imagination of a child's mind, the explorer's log book providing the final physical object. Eventually, however, I started to realize that the idea of a landscape created in the mind of a child could be made more fantastical if it were printed bigger—the unreal aspect of the physical subject was made more real through the size of the print. I started to photograph with the larger print size in my mind and found that the drama of the scene seemed to punch out of the paper. The landscape was no longer in the explorer's log book—it was closer to seeing it for real. This new portfolio represents my first step into making a child's world bigger.

One great pleasure that I have when I make these landscapes is that I take it upon myself to name them as if I was discovering a new world. Each piece is named with a specific person or place in mind—usually based on what is happening in my life at that moment. Vaughan Mount is named after the great British painter Keith Vaughan. I found that it took me quite a long time to understand his work and to see why he did what he did—but eventually my mind and eye clicked into his way of thinking and it felt as if he were there, talking to me and explaining his paintings. This was an important thing to happen to me at the time. 

Winter Sun on the Ice Near Glass Bay was taken at another important point in my life. I had made an image of Glass Bay before, but now I found that I could cross reference the images to mention other nearby places, making the world more complete and connected. For eight years before making this image, I had been photographing a beach in Pembrokeshire, Poppit Sands, and for nearly every journey to that beach I would play Philip Glass. The repetition of this music then transferred into when I was developing the film and finally printing the images. It was always there, always playing, and always linking me to the experience of photographing the beach. It had become so important to me that I decided to name a place after him—Glass Bay. I have a couple of prints that make reference to the bay, and I expect that there will be more to come.

—Michael Jackson