Digital Photography and Sense of Place
Gledhow Valley Woods,
where our Matthew fell in the beck at the age of 4
“Sense of place describes our relationship with places,
expressed in different dimensions of human life: emotions, biographies,
imagination, stories, and personal experiences” (Basso, 1996)“Place matters because it marks the physical dimension of our lives
and is the home for all our traditions and memories”
Hidden New York, Marci Reaven and Steve Zeitlin (2006)
As I’ve described before HERE …, my digital photographs represent my rootedness in the city, reminding me that I belong here. But there’s more – they’re the custodian of my memories and experiences.
If I browse slowly through my images I’ll pause over the ones from Otley Chevin and tell you about celebrating Mum’s birthday there on the eve of the Millennium; images of the Cow and Calf outcrop on Ilkley Moor are intrinsically linked to my first hockey match in Yorkshire (at nearby Ben Rhydding, in October 1971) when the rain was coming down the valley, in horizontal sheets; Gledhow Valley Woods remind me of the place where Matt fell in the beck; The Bowl in Roundhay Park recalls our family games of football and hockey on Christmas mornings.
When I show you a photo of the Black Prince statue in City Square I’ll tell you about my first visit this far north (beyond the Arctic Circle, in the minds of my family) for my university interview; Woodhouse Ridge reminds me of walking to and from the University; Harewood Church triggers the story of Ian’s student telling me about the effigies being ‘his mates’; Roundhay Golf Club is about our walk there last Christmas morning.
I’ll call it memories and traditions whilst, in geography, it’s called sense of place. But by either name, digital photography is the guardian of it all – of my stories and my emotional relationship with this part of Yorkshire.