Loom of the Land

Betty Lloyd

Betty Lloyd on ‘Loom af the Land’:

Who can walk along a beach and not pick up one of the interesting pebbles? Hold it up to the sky to study its crazed inclusions, or hold it up to an eye to look through an eroded hole. Wonder if perhaps the pattern is made by a fossil. Perhaps it’s tempting to take one home, even though there are fines for doing so and the colours will vanish as it dries. Seriously, we must look and leave — beaches are fragile environments.

When I was a child, trips to the seaside were magical events. Sandcastles weren’t my thing but rock pools were windows into tiny fantasy worlds and it was the big, immovable boulders that I imagined to be great mountains, rugged headlands, otherworldly landscapes in a fairy land or on another planet.

Boulders and cliffs have faces and I think this way of speaking about them gave me the idea to photograph their portraits. I am not seeking simulacra so, I quickly dropped the idea to dress them in a dinner jacket or an evening gown. Instead, I elected to isolate the abstract beauty of their faces against a clear blue sky.