Ace images of people you meet on the hill from outdoors photographer Henry Iddon.
You might remember Henry Iddon's intriguing 'Spots - of - Time' collection of images shot in the Lake District at night, his follow-up series, 'Hill People', a selection of portraits of people he met on the hill is just as fascinating in a completely different way, and is this month's online exhibition at the Association of Photographers web gallery.
The images are fascinating viewing. Not just because they illustrate the huge diversity of folk you bump into on the hill, but because inevitably you become aware of your own assumptions and they way you judge others based on their age, race, gender and, crucially, what they're wearing and find yourself building a mental picture of wjho they might be, how experienced they are and so on.
It's the odd little discrepancies you notice. Like the capable lady fell runner in black and yellow Walshes and full lippy - crop out the fell shoes and your assumptions might well be completely different. Or the way people stand. I love the fists balled, properly determined stance of a young lad with proper boots, pack and waterproof jacket for example.
The fascination's in the detail.
Iddon's new project, by the way, is called 'A Place To Go' and ' looks at sites of fatal accidents in the UK mountains shot on 5x4 large format'. We've seen a couple of the images and accompanying text and it looks fascinating with an odd mix of the historical and the disquieting. There's something distinctly sobering about the benign look of the Ben Macdui plateau where six Edinburgh schoolboys perished in 1971.
You can see the AOP gallery at home.the-aop.org/current-online-exhibition but for full impact, take a look at Henry's own site at cargocollective.com/henryiddon/Hill-People.
