Landscape Photography courses set amidst the unique and extraordinary landscapes of the First World War.
Passchendaele, the Somme, Verdun and Ypres: no other landscapes define the shaping of the modern world as do the battlefields of northern France. It is here that photography first realized its potential to document and explore the human condition as it enabled people across the world and ages to understand the horror and drama of the world wars. Here still, the scars of our history are written upon the landscape.
Battlefield Vision is a unique opportunity for photographers to return to the landscape of one of humanity’s greatest dramas. As landscapes, the battlefields of northern France present unique challenges to the photographer. These aren’t places of tumbling cliffs or elegant mountains, but simple, unadorned landscapes. These are the now quiet sites of history, alive still to the imaginative potential of the camera. Here, in long-abandoned trenches, tilled fields, forgotten wire and fledgling copses, the photographer’s skill is to depict not only physical beauty, but the arresting and singular emotion of landscapes bearing witness to the heights of human tragedy.
Battlefield Vision offers a unique experience in photographing these unique and unforgettable landscapes.
Set in the battlefields of northern France, Battlefield Vision provides intensive courses in the study and practice of photographing landscape. Battlefield Vision is unique in side-stepping the easy return in photographing landscapes of outstanding natural beauty; instead our ambition is to teach photographers the far harder task of capturing emotion, history and imagination by the camera.
In these courses, photographic and digital skills are learnt and exercised under this key objective: to translate emotion into photograph.
Led by a leading international photographer, these courses are suited to individuals with confident photographic skills, and an enthusiasm for demanding, out-of-the-ordinary subjects. In particular, these courses are suited to those with an interest in history and the environment.
The courses provide keen photographers with the technical ability to turn sensation into image, the present into history, and explore the potential of photography as a medium where the science of documentary meets the emotive power of the aesthetic.
Battlefield Vision – who we are
Battlefield Vision is a unique project led by the celebrated international photographer, Mike St Maur Sheil. Winner of numerous awards and accolades – including a coveted World Press Award - in thirty-nine years of professional photography Mike has worked in over sixty countries, from Alaska to Zimbawe. Combining work as a corporate photographer, photojournalist, photographic lecturer, and landscape photographer, Mike’s work has been continually published across the world, including National Geographic, New York Times, Time Magazine, as well as leading international television news stories at ABC News and the BBC.
Battlefield Vision is a continuation of Mike’s celebrated work on the battlefields of northern Europe. Alongside leading historians, Mike has devoted recent years to charting these lands, creating a comprehensive photographic documentation of these emotive landscapes.. What began as a personal project has grown into a series of international photographic exhibitions, and lectures at both the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal United Services Institute.
Battlefield Vision brings the dedicated learning of this continuing project – the photographic study of this expansive and hushed landscape – together with Mike’s experience as a qualified battlefield guide, photographer and lecturer.
To ensure all participants are afforded the best technical and local support, Battlefield Vision is run in conjunction with Battle Honours Tours, the UK’s leading experts in walking battlefield tours. Directors Julian Whippy and Clive Harris, both members if the International Guild of Battlefield Guides, have contributed their knowledge on the battlefields widely, from the BBC’s Time Watch, to Channel 4’s Time Team. Julian and Clive has also authored numerous books on the events of these landscapes, and lecture widely on the subject of military history.
