Martin Cox | Thinking About Photography

Martin Cox

Snow Drawing

I grew up in moist England, Los Angeles is where I chose to live. Riveted by photography and landscape I have followed my heart and vision. In my now familiar environment of semi-arid desert I have reveled (photographically) in the spaciousness and desiccated majesty of the desert expanses inland from LA. Many of my photo projects spiraling out from a drive to the desert to examine a mysterious old sign, or a dirt road from a map, or dry lake bed. The visual exploration of geography and geology carved by water and exposed by drought was in deep contrast to my leafy forested youth. Art schooled in the lush rolling and ancient countryside of Hampshire I was reacting to planetary vibe of the landscape in the southwest.

Nothing prepared me for the contrast of a landscape entirely made of water. In Iceland’s north east I roamed the fjords and valleys in winter’s grip. Deep snow covered everything. The skies, laden with snow flakes yet to fall cast a flat and mysterious light eliminating shadows and obscuring the horizon. Here under tons of frozen water was a silent magical world indicated by the merest of marks. Almost as if they were woodblock prints the my color photographs depict wide mountains hinted at by exposed rock or a feathery tree, the tiny farm house, the fragile imprint of a tree or hedge. Scale becomes illusive with no familiar horizon to gauge distance.

In a snowy desert, the sound of my breath, the muffled crunch under my feet were all that anchored me to the spacious watery vistas resulting in my series Snow Drawing.

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