The Lay of the Land

This series is a year-long writing and photography project that asks a simple question with deeply layered answers: what is the lay of the land? Culminating 15 years of exploring and learning about my 60-square-mile patch of the Pennines, it comprises 52 weekly posts, 55,000 words and 1,800 photographs that survey the terrain, history, wildlife and community life in the upper Calder Valley. In trying to let the landscape do the talking, I wrote in the third person, and although I do not speak directly of him, my nine-year-old son was ever present as I visited every corner of our valleys and moors.