A.O.N.B. (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) 1982 - 1984

Curator: Here we have a photograph by Keith Arnatt titled "A.O.N.B. (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty)." It depicts a landscape shrouded in mist, with a signpost pointing towards Raglan. Editor: Bleak. Utterly, beautifully bleak. The tonality just sucks you into that quiet, damp morning. Curator: Indeed. Arnatt's work often plays with irony and the mundane. He deliberately photographs this "Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty" on what seems like its least flattering day. Editor: Right, the high art of anticlimax! The sign promises natural beauty, but the monochrome and heavy fog suggest something far more ambiguous, even a bit ominous. Is it a critique of the very concept of designated beauty spots? Curator: Perhaps. Or maybe he's inviting us to find beauty in the understated, the everyday, even in the gloom. Editor: Well, whatever his intention, it certainly makes you pause and rethink what you expect from a landscape photograph. Makes you wonder what's really worth seeing, doesn't it?