PETRIFIED

CORNWALL, UK, 2025

Colliford Lake has an infamous past. Cornwall's largest body of water isn't actually a lake; it's a man-made reservoir. Between 1983 and 1984, a dam was created, impounding water from the River St Neot. Creating a water supply bigger than all of Cornwall's other reservoirs combined. 

Its birth was controversial. 1,400 acres of farmland were drowned to create it. Submerging land local farmers are never going to get back.

I wanted to capture remnants of the area before the flood. After doing research, I found out there were a group of trees still standing after they were submerged in 1984. 

The problem was that these trees had been photographed many times. As an artist, I either avoid over-photographed subjects or go the extra mile to make them different. When making landscapes, I love to create overexposed minimalist pieces. It draws the eye to the subject and removes any tension points surrounding the main focus. I looked at other images of the trees and noticed no one else had done it this way.

​We arrived mid-morning. The trees were backlit, but the light was reflecting off the water. Very harsh. If I'd made a balanced exposure, it would've resulted in a horrible frame of burnt-out patches of water. It was all or nothing. So I broke the rules. Overexposing the scene by 3 stops to create a minimalist print that encapsulates the eerie scene. 

From Steve Jobs' biography, I learnt the effect that white empty space has on creating a visually pure aesthetic. I love the high contrast minimalist work of Michael Kenna, Renate Aller and Hiroshi Sugimoto. I drew from all of these greats when making this print. 

"AS AN ARTIST, I EITHER AVOID OVER-PHOTOGRAPHED SUBJECTS OR GO THE EXTRA MILE TO MAKE THEM DIFFERENT. 

–JACOB J. WATSON-HOWLAND

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