Alex Boyd - Sonnets from Scotland

Alex Boyds Series received critical acclaim from the likes of Vogue, Metro and the short lived online Fuzion magazine. With various exhibitions over the past 15 years, his work is now held in collections such as the National Gallery of Scotland, and the Royal photographic Society.

Alex Boyd, 2010. From his series "Sonnets from Scotland"

Having moved from Germany to Scotland as a young child, Boyd's earliest memories are of the landscape upon his arrival. He was given a poetry book with paintings by Casper David Freidrich, this was was an early inspiration for Boyd and lead to the Sonnets from Scotland series. Freidrich's work is from northern Germany, and depicted figures standing at the shore looking out across the north sea, this connected with Boyd who spent much of his time looking south towards his "imagined home" in Germany. In 2007 Boyd started the sonnets series after completing a short film. Taking further inspiration from the photographer Bill Brant, Boyd was drawn to the stark dramatic landscapes of Scotland like the Isle of Skye. Like Freidrich, Boyd would use a figure in his landscapes that "Draw[s] that scale in". For me, this also helps to create an emotional human response to the landscape, viewing the images, I almost become this figure contemplating the vista before him. The figures stance, dropped arms, almost lifeless, tells me that he is totally lost in the landscape, and in many images such as the photo above, where the model has walked into the water shows a clear need to directly connect and be one with the landscape.

"We have a landscape, and we have a figure"

Drawn to the Isle of Skye because "it has everything a photographer could really want", Alex Boyd went about creating his work using a friend Henning as a model. Boyd explains that the beauty of working with an old friend is that he has a lot of patience with Boyd and understands where hes coming from. He also has trust, witch is important when asking a lot of your model.

Alex Boyd. 2010. 'Alex Boyd - The Sonnets from Scotland [Online Video]'. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqoB7bnd26o . [Accessed 27 March].