Andy Sewell

The Heath is a series of both subtle and complex photographs of Hampstead Heath in London that were taken over a court of five years. He published a book with the same name as the series which shows a landscape of imagination as well as a record of a real and familiar place, the book and the series itself are seen as a classic understatement of observation. 

Hampstead Heath was once a beautiful countryside area that surrounded London, it is now only a small green fragment set within the urban landscape; its a place that it engulfed by ancient trees, tall grass and thickets that are dense enough to get lost in.

"I go to the Heath to be somewhere that feels natural, yet I know this is no pathless wood. The Heath is as managed as any other part of London but managed to feel wild; I am interested in this paradox".

The project is is about perceptions of what is natural, it is also an attempt to explore the human condition of "biophilia" which, according to the biologist E. O. Wilson, is an innate and genetically determined affinity of human beings with the natural world. Which means that Sewell wanted to photograph a natural area that he felt drawn to without knowing why he was drawn to it and that in itself is what makes the project so beautiful and profound.

Information can be found at: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/photography/8432619/The-Heath.html
Images can be found at: http://www.andysewell.com/the-heath-1