Visual Notes #18

Following the Red River

Feb 12, 2026

This past weekend I travelled down to Toner Gallery in Penzance to take part in a workshop with photographer Jem Southam. Jem was the head of the photography department in Exeter when I studied there from 2002–05. He is a seminal British landscape photographer, and The Red River is one of his first books and considered influential in the history of British landscape photography. I have been working on a long term project in Sheffield, and have become conscious that part of my approach echoes that of Jem’s. His words and advice from over twenty years ago have seeped into my thoughts and the way I take pictures.

When Matt at Toner Gallery announced he was organising a weekend workshop with Jem, culminating an exhibition, I jumped at the opportunity to take part. I hoped that 42 year old me would absorb more from Jem than the 21 year old me did, when I probably didn’t fully appreciate landscape photography and was more interested to photographing punk bands.

We ventured to three locations that appear in the original series and were given a couple of hours to explore and take pictures. The idea wasn’t to replicate the images in the book but to find our own that reflected our personal experience of the spaces. Fortunately the weather was a perfect combination of flat light and Cornish mizzle ideal for the ‘dank’ (Jem’s words not mine) tone of the Red River images.

The Red River winds its way north from the small hamlet of Bolenowe via Carn Brea to the beach at Godrevy. The valley is full of remnants of the Cornish mining industry dotted around farmland and villages. The river once had a red tint, the colour came from industrial mineral deposits including iron oxide seeping into the water. Now in the age of environmental protection the river is closer to its natural state.

These are some of the images I made throughout the day.