Beyond the Forest

The name Transylvania translates literally from the Hungarian into Clare Richardson's title, 'beyond the forest.' Richardson uses photography to enter into the world of a small farming community there, a historical region high on a plateau, believed to be the home of the descendants of the children who were led out of Hamlyn. The community relies on hard work and patience to survive in a land where weather and crop cycles set the pace, and where the landscape, not coincidentally, looks not just like Hamlyn's fairy tale scenes might have, but like pre-industrial, pre-enclosure England. Since her first publication, Harlemville, Richardson's contemporary pastoral work, including the related Romanian series Sylvan, has been shown in London and Canada.