We are Harriet Fraser and Rob Fraser – a writer and photographer based in Cumbria. Our work is based around encounters with the natural world and a slow revelation of the stories behind the land.

The Long View is one of several projects we work on together as the collaboration somewhere-nowhere. We share a love for the natural world and a curiosity, and a tendency to abandon speed and indulge in the pleasure of taking time to get to know a place. We use photography and writing in our creative practice to respond to the natural world and the way humans interact with their environments.

We have both loved trees for as long as we can remember, were tree climbers as children (still are) and want to know more. We dreamed up what was to become The Long View in 2010 with the desire to select seven lone trees and get to know them, and the land around them, over the course of one or two years. We have now found the trees, got the project off the ground and are looking forward to what’s ahead, and responding in our own ways to what we discover.

Rob
“My work is about revealing a subject through thoughtful composition and patience. The camera is a tool, a starting point to hold a moment in time within four edges. Pressing the shutter is just one part of the creative process. I then work with the real film in a traditional darkroom to bring other elements to play through the prints I produce. In The Long View my subjects will be trees, landscapes, people.”

Harriet
“I write poetry and prose to discover, as well as to present what I observe and feel and what I learn, and to enquire into debates about relationships between humans and land, and sustainability. I like to spend a long time with the same subjects and let the deeper stories emerge. As well as writing in a traditional form, on the page, I will be giving land, seasons and weather physical expression in some of my poems, and sharing the process through photographs.”

If you’d like to read more about our work, including where we have exhibited and published, please follow this link to the somewhere-nowhere website.