The Blind Photographer

This evocative poem, written by Ewen Cameron and read by Andrew Rae, describes how the landscape of the North Wessex Downs has been impacted by thousands of years of man’s activity ….. but this isn’t always seen.

The beauty of the landscape about which the photographer rhapsodises was actually created by man. His mark is everywhere, and goes back centuries to the first moment a man decided to work the soil, or to fight for it, or to dwell there ….. but the photographer only sees the surface: by ignorance or choice, he is blind to its long, long story.

This poem was written by Ewen Cameron after hearing a politician discussing how God and nature had given us such a wonderful English countryside. Whereas the truth is that our countryside comes entirely from the sweat and toil of man over years, decades, and centuries.

Our countryside is the greatest living cultural legacies we have inherited – as important as any of our wonderful cathedrals.