browseTees Estuary
Ian Macdonald (Photographer)
Text drawn from Amber catalogue, 1987:
North Yorkshire photographer Ian Macdonald has been photographing the industrial River Tees for a number of years, and in particular has been interested in the ever changing relationship between the natural environment and the effect of man, machine and industry.
The Tees Estuary is visually extremely exciting. Its richness, in part, arises from the inherent contrasts of the natural environment against man-made structures - of the vast sphere of sky, serene or dramatic, against the horizontal flatness of lowland space punctuated by verticals as power stations, fractionating columns, blast furnaces and estuarine lights. The vast expanse of water reflects a permeating light which clothes objects and landscape in a unique brightness, beautiful and sensational, a delight to photographers and film-makers alike. Ian Macdonald, June 1982
As well as featuring the landscape, the exhibition includes pictures of the people who find the estuary a source of work, relaxation and pleasure: fishermen, sun-bathers, wind-surfers, bird-watchers; and the estuary at night, the steel works and chemical plants flooded in electric light across the water.
The exhibition was shown in 1982.