Sawbridgworth to Bishop Stortford
Hoddesdon to Roydon Part 3
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The River Stort
The River Stort The River Stort runs for about 24 miles from its source near the Essex village of Langley to its confluence with the River Lea near Hoddesdon. The river was canalised between Bishops Stortford and its mouth in the eighteenth century to facilitate the malt trade between Bishop Stortford and London whilst the river above Bishop Stortford runs through agricultural lands. The landscapes through which the Stort runs are therefore entirely man made. Above Bishop Stortford the river is little more than a stream running through rural pastures but the navigation canal, or Stort Navigation as it is called is an example of an industrial structure being returned to nature. Or rather being repurposed to become a recreational area for human leisure activities (walking or using the river for aquatic pastimes). The Stort Navigation is managed by the Canal and River Trust who keep the footpaths clear of vegetation and the canal clea...
Landscape Art
There is a tension that exists in landscape photography. Landscape art (of which photography is a sub genre) was born in Western Europe at the time when societies became urbanised, the need to depict landscapes seems to stem from our separation from nature. Heidegger believes that the rational, enlightened western man views the world as if it were a picture – to be scrutinised, analysed and understood. Conquered by him intellectually. But in placing himself at the centre of the world, everything he views becomes a study of anthropology in other words of himself. We don’t see the world as it is but as we believe it to be. In the eighteenth century artists would carry a Claude glass (the equivalent of wandering around with a smart phone today) through which they would view landscapes as a means of deciding whether the view was sufficiently picturesque to warrant painting. Those landscapes that met wit...
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