|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| The Books - Foot & Mouth: The Aftermath - Page 3 |
 |
The
United Kingdom foot-and-mouth-disease epidemic lasted only 9 months in
2001, but it has left a much longer shadow...
All the photographs in this book are in black and white in order to convey something of the bleakness which Ian encountered in chronicling the aftermath situation remaining in 2002. As the author says: "There were just no animals" - no sheep peacefully grazing the fields, hills and moorlands, no cattle quietly lowing, no lambs or calves bellowing for their mothers. "A number of farmers told me that when the slaughter of animals had been completed on their farms the birds went silent - I wanted to capture in image form that silence." |
|
In an interview for "Country Life" magazine he said: "In Cumbria, I was told that during the autumn you could travel from Penrith to Carlisle and not see a single farm animal. It is that devastation that I wanted to show in the images in order to raise awareness of the plight of the rural community." There is an initially surprising lack of animal pictures in the book. That is the whole point - empty cowsheds and fields, blank faces on people in the rural community. This is what the aftermath of a devastating epidemic is about - loss of familiar views and familiar ways of life. The book is a historical record that brings alive the great epidemics, human as well as animal that have occurred throughout history. It is a moving historical record and tribute to shocked rural communities - a glimpse of that bleak period before people are quite ready or able to rebuild their lives - the moment when they still bear the emotional, physical, economic and spiritual scars of recent trauma. The moment also, when they realise the full extent of their loss - their lives will never be quite the same again! About the AuthorPhotographer, Ian Geering was so moved by the impact of the U.K. foot and mouth epidemic on rural communities that he travelled the length and breadth of the country recording the devastation with his camera. He felt that the consequences of this epidemic were a story that had to be told. A recent exhibition of his photographs left visitors in tears. For months Ian travelled around the main rural areas hit by the crisis: Cumbria, North Yorkshire, North Devon, Kent, Wales and Herefordshire. He interviewed the people whose livelihoods had been destroyed and he photographed the sad scenes of loss. £2 from each copy sold is donated to the ARC-Addington fund - a charity set up to assist the rural community Available from Amazon |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
