Seamus Murphy
Seamus Murphy began photographing Afghanistan in 1994, and his new book A Darkness Visible: Afghanistan, is a classic on the rise of the Taliban and...
Read more ›The Glorious Land
on 25 November 2011Over the next twelve days we will be featuring a new music video
featuring PJ Harvey by Seamus Murphy daily. The accompanying text
by Seamus will give an insight into his thoughts about the videos.
ENJOY!
As with the other films; I wanted to avoid a literal
interpretation of the lyrics, but to try to remain true to the
spirit and feel of the track. 'The Glorious Land' was the third
film we edited and com¬pleted in Berlin in the cycle of the 12
films, the first was 'The Words That Maketh Murder' and the second
was 'The Last Living Rose'. Both the editor, Sebastian Gollek, and
I loved this track, and for me the bugle blast and where it comes
in is truly a glorious thing. It has the courage to be discordant
and barking mad but perfect on its own terms, surely a quality of
great art?
I had noticed interesting things coming through the trees when
driving around Dorset in October. Autumn colours, the sunlight
streaming through, the effect of movement during driving, how
things changed if I speeded up or slowed down, how the angle of the
camera changed things so I started experimenting with shooting and
driving. I shot through the car sunroof straight up into the sky or
through the windscreen, some deliberately overexposed and out of
focus to increase the abstraction. I liked the white, washed-out
look of the sky and how at times there are stretches of pure white.
I had originally had 'All And Everyone' in my head for these
images, but knew visually it could work elsewhere. When we started
editing 'The Glorious Land' it became obvious it was made for
it.
PJ Harvey Web Site
England Photo Essay by Seamus Murphy