The words I have chosen for this exercise, come from one of my favourite songs called ‘Coyotes’ by singer Don Edwards. The song tells a story of a cowboy, who is reflecting on how the world he once knew, has changed dramatically over the years. There are implications made of a deep connection between nature and man, and how we as a human race – in the cowboy’s eyes – have destroyed the landscape in front of us for our own needs. The song describes the continuous loss we experience as time passes – perhaps from our own doing – where in the end, the cowboy himself becomes ‘lost’.
My photographs were taken in and around the village where I reside, which has seen huge change since I first moved here thirty years ago. New housing developments have naturally caused a spike in population, and as a result, the landscape is forever changing. The village was the site of the earliest Roman settlement in Scotland, and throughout, I envisaged what the landscape would have been like back then, how radically it would have changed every few years, and what the Roman’s would have made of the village today. I wanted my images to reflect the passing of time and how people have shaped the landscape – for better and for worse. However, within all the photographs, the notion of nature is evident. Each image is supported by a line from the song, but I’ve been incredibly careful that the text adds meaning, rather than describing what’s depicted in the photograph.
“Part history, part sage, part mesquit”
“And he’ll tell you a tale of the old days, when the country was wild all around”
“Now the longhorns have gone, and the drovers are gone”
“Well he cursed all the roads and the oil men”
“In this new world of asphalt and steel”
Iain Barbour - BA (Hons) Photography 