I was stood behind a derelict farm building wrapped in many layers with just my eyes peering out from between my warm bobble hat and scarf covering my nose protecting me from the most bitter wind chill I think I’ve experienced yet on the Moors when this scene presented itself. It reminded me of the old carol ‘In the Bleak Mid Winter’, and specifically it’s first verse with the words:

In the bleak midwinter
Frosty wind made moan
Earth stood hard as iron
Water like a stone
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow
In the bleak midwinter, long ago

It described the scene, sounds and feelings absolutely perfectly almost as if it was made for it. In the Bleak Midwinter this hardy Hawthorn stood, with the freezing wind howling around the old building of long ago situated on the bleak Moorland, the ground rock sold beneath its feet, beautiful ice caught in the branches and a powdery snow being whipped up with new falls coming in the shower clouds. It was a somehow beautifully romantic and punishingly harsh landscape at the very same time.

Artist: Phil Starkey
Series: Living Landscapes
Archival pigment print

Image Size: 29.7cm x 42cm

Edition 1 of 25