Ian Gabaldoni
Ian Gabaldoni is a landscape photographer whose works have been selected in the Royal Photographic Society International Photography Exhibition 165 and published by Another Place Press in their Field Notes series. He remains drawn specifically to the landscapes of the Somerset Levels in which he describes as “seemingly uneventful places: the fields, drainage ditches, rivers, pastures and marshes that go unnoticed. In daylight, they appear gentle and unassuming, but at night they are filled with tension and anxiety”.
The Somerset Levels is a coastal plain wetland area of Somerset, England. Ian’s photography could be described as conservation and documentative as he describes these wetlands as declining unfavourably and could become ecologically destroyed within decades if major conservation efforts are not conducted. All of the main rivers in the Somerset Levels are polluted beyond government-imposed legal limits. By documenting and creating art of these delicate environments, Ian hopes to bring attention to the diminishing prospects of the Somerset Levels.
By capturing these delicately threatened wetland areas of Somerset, Ian guides our awareness in particular as to why we should protect the coastal plain, because of its stunning beauty. Ian’s acute photographs depict an unglamorous yet appealing landscape representing a raw country aesthetic. Ranging from creeks to rivers to swamps and fields of grass, he captures such a fragile environment at a favorable time of day which induces a misty sfumato, full of moisture in the air. Probably most of his photographs are taken during the peak of dawn or dusk in order to capture the distinct smoky atmosphere in his depiction of the wetlands.
One of Ian’s photographs depicting a clear shot of a Somerset river (pictured above) reveals the very character of the landscape. A raw photograph reminiscent of the paintings of Joseph Mallord William Turner with the painterly depiction of trees being devoured by the atmosphere of fog and mist. Strikingly, the sun has escaped and has been consumed by the terrible and overbearing clouds above. The dark landscape perhaps portrays the dreary prospects of the area without serious conservation efforts, a foreshadowing of events.
Ian Gabaldoni creates art which beckons awareness towards a noble goal of conservation and respecting the environment. If we perhaps can universally cherish the Somerset Levels on an aesthetic level, the audience may also be able to appreciate their own local natural surroundings endangered by the creeping and imposing advancing industrialization of civilization. Ian's vision can be described as a precision toward identifying the poetic underbelly, with guiding luminosity, of natural environments too remote and unfashionable to be appreciated by tourists but cherished for its raw aesthetic nature by the local population and an audience willing to study his photography.
