In Conversation: Mike Perry & Bronwen Colquhorn

Mike Perry

Mike Perry’s photographs examine the interactions of landscapes, nature and industrial society. Over the last 20 years his practice has focused on Britain’s National Parks and increasingly the immediate surroundings of Pembrokeshire where he lives and works, questioning the romantic mythology of national parks as areas of wilderness and natural beauty. He uses large format photography in order to simultaneously capture the painterly tones and aesthetic qualities of the landscape’s surface as well as detailing the impacts of humanity’s exploitation of nature for commercial gains. Series of smaller photographs show objects found in the landscape at 1:1 scale, capturing the effect of natural processes on the surfaces of industrially produced materials. Discussing the tension between the seductive surfaces and worrying content of his work, he commented that ‘as well as highlighting the overconsumption and pollution they show nature’s ability to shape our world whether we humans are here or not’.