The East Anglia Fens

I have lived much of my life in the Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire Fens and am currently documenting the Fens around the town of Ely.

One of the things that bind me to this open countryside is the fact that it is both artificial – a man-made working landscape – yet constantly changing with the weather, seasons, crops and methods of cultivation.

The visual affect is dramatic rather than picturesque. A very special combination of wide, open skies and straight lines receding in an infinite perspective.

A land segmented by raised banks and dikes, tamed rivers and roads, sliced with geometric precision through what were once wild marshes and desolate shallow meres.

The East Anglia Fens divide divide into two main areas separated by the River Cam and the Great Ouse, which run from South-west to North-east and join south of Ely.