Essence of Autumn

Essence of AUTUMN

A Collection of Photographs by

David Favager

First Published January 2017 © D J Favager 2017

Front Cover: Port Sunlight Tree with Autumn Leaves (Cubist) This Page: Leaves in an Autumn Garden Back Cover Top: Autumn Woods at Aughton Back Cover Below: Self Portrait of the Author

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Contents In Search of Autumn Early Autumn Autumn Colour Autumn Places Autumn Gold Autumn’s End

page 3 page 8 page 17 page 25 page 35 page 45

Autumn in Birkenhead Park 2

In Search of Autumn

Lane in West Lancashire in Autumn What is autumn? A ‘Season of Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness …’? Undoubtedly; words so evocative of autumn but how many know the rest of the poem which is, it might be said, something of a disappointment? It hardly describes autumn as we experience it either in reality or imagination.

Autumn is of course a time of year. But if we ask ‘when?’ even in this apparently simple respect autumn is elusive. Autumn begins as the nights draw in and the leaves start to turn.

The first hint of autumn can often be sensed early in August (and in Ireland, with its Gaelic tradition, August is actually considered an autumn month). The meteorologists consider September, October and November as autumn and some cultures regard the autumn equinox as the midpoint of the season but others insist that the equinox marks not the middle but the start of autumn. This ‘astronomical’ autumn begins around the 22nd of September and ends around the 20th of December. But who seriously thinks that midDecember is not winter? Is not the Winter Solstice Midwinter’s Day and is the Summer Solstice not known as Midsummer’s Day?

Autumn Trees in a Cemetery 3

Pumpkin Truffles – the spirit of Halloween in the twenty-first century?

Autumn is a time of festival – harvest festivals when the fruit of the land is brought in and churches hold services to thank God for His bounty. The apples, pears and grapes are gathered and pressed to make cider, perry and wine and wild berries are collected from hedgerows to make jam and fruit pies. The ancient Celtic festival of Samhain traditionally marks the beginning of the darker half of the year; it is a ’liminal’ time when the boundaries between this world and the other are blurred and the souls of the dead and other spirit beings can visit the homes of the living in search of hospitality or propitiation. Christianised as All Souls’ Day it is now known as Halloween, a celebration of the dark side and a time of lanterns (pumpkins or turnips) and apple bobbing.

Cemetery on a Dull Autumn Day – a liminal space 4

Autumn is a feast for all the senses – birdsong, the distinctive fragrance of the forests, the often chilling breezes that shake the last leaves from their branches, the warmth of the crackling bonfire, the sulphurous fireworks, the aroma and taste of seasonal food and drink but above all colour, the vibrant and variegated colours of the trees, green, yellow, red, orange and brown, constantly changing – and gold, the golden light of the declining sun that filters through the trees on a late October afternoon and the golden brown of the leaves that carpet the paths and woodlands.

Fountain at Astley Park in Autumn

Autumn Leaves on a Dull Morning 5

Autumn is more than a mere experience, it is a state of mind, a sense of melancholy of which artists and poets have been especially aware and which today is reflected in the names of groups purveying various genres of gothic and dark rock music - Autumn Mysts, Autumn Silence, Eternal Autumn, Endless Autumn, Forever Autumn, Autumn’s Shroud, Mid Autumn Nights, As Autumn Dies, Seasons in Autumn Rain, Remnants of Autumn and countless others in the same vein. The short-lived beauty that arises from the process of dying, giving way to the starkness of winter and apparent death – the compelling sadness represented by such imagery and its obvious relevance to the human condition has affected the more sensitive souls since ancient times. Paul Verlaine expressed this sense of loss in his Chanson d'Automne from Poèmes saturniens (1867): Les saglots longs Des violons De l'automne Blessent mon coeur D'une langueur Monotone.

The long sobs Of the violins Of autumn Wound my heart With a languor Monotonous

Tout suffocant Et blême, quand Sonne l'heure, Je me souviens Des jours anciens Et je pleure;

All suffocating And pale, when Strikes the hour I remember Former days And I cry

Et je m'en vais Au vent mauvais Qui m'emporte Deçà, delà, Pareil à la Feuille morte.

And I go away On the ill wind Which carries me away Here, beyond Like to the Dead leaf

Autumn Leaves 6

Woods in Aughton The same sentiments are expressed in the Autumn Song of Sarojini Naidu Like a joy on the heart of a sorrow, The sunset hangs on a cloud; A golden storm of glittering sheaves, Of fair and frail and fluttering leaves, The wild wind blows in a cloud.

Hark to a voice that is calling To my heart in the voice of the wind: My heart is weary and sad and alone, For its dreams like the fluttering leaves have gone, And why should I stay behind?

Yet we know that as winter comes so spring and with it the rebirth of new life cannot be far behind. And so the cycle continues – death and life, life and death, each contributing to the other and each imparting its own special element to the season that is autumn.

Where can autumn be found? It is pervasive yet, as we have said, remarkably elusive. Go out to pin it down and it is liable to elude you. You will surely find its richness in villages, farms and fields, in woods and hills, vineyards and orchards; in shops and garden centres, in schools and on playing fields and even on the railways where it is an annual irritant to longsuffering passengers but it is perhaps at its most magnificent on a fine October day in the gardens, parks and cemeteries of the suburbs where the greatest variety of colour can often be encountered. If the poets have failed to capture the meaning of autumn in their verses the photographers have surely been more successful in distilling its essence in the most direct and striking way. Take your camera and go out into the fall and try to bring a little piece of it back with you. I hope that the images in this book have, by abstracting from specific scenes something of the essential, and at times even anthropomorphic, spirit that is the season of autumn, succeeded in doing just that.

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Early Autumn

Fountain at Astley Park in Autumn

Fountain at Astley Park in Autumn – two different photographs of the same scene 8

Fountain at Astley Park in Autumn (Cubist)

Path between Playing Fields (Crystal) 9

Path between Playing Fields 10

Tree Shedding its Leaves 11

Tree Shedding its Leaves (Cubist) 12

Tree with Hedge in Autumn 13

Autumn Tree Edge Hill University

Storeton Woods Late Afternoon in Autumn 14

Sun Shining through Trees in a Cemetery 15

Autumn in Avenham Park, Preston

Autumn in Avenham Park, Preston (Crystal)

Tree with Green and Yellow Leaves (Cubist) 16

Autumn Colour

Woodland at Aughton in Autumn 17

Woodland at Aughton in Autumn (Crystal) 18

Woodland at Aughton in Autumn

Autumn Berries in West Lancashire 19

Autumn Colour Edge Hill University 20

Path in a Cemetery in Autumn 21

Path in a Cemetery in Autumn (Crystal)

Park in the Autumn Preston 22

Path in the Autumn Mist 23

Path in the Autumn Mist (Crystal)

Squirrel Eating Berries 24

Autumn Places

Chester City Walls in Autumn

Old Dee Bridge in Autumn 25

Chester Cathedral with Autumn Trees 26

Autumn Leaves in Port Sunlight 27

Autumn Leaves in Port Sunlight (Cubist) 28

Autumn Leaves in Port Sunlight (Crystal)

Port Sunlight Lyceum in Autumn 29

Autumn Cottages Great Budworth

Waterside Cottages Lymn 30

Lane in West Lancashire in Autumn (Crystal)

Path, Birkenhead Park, Early Autumn 31

Lodge, Upper Park in Autumn

Boathouse in Autumn

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Path, Birkenhead Park, Early Autumn (Crystal)

Lake in the Mist, Birkenhead Park 33

Aughton Church in Autumn

Aughton Churchyard in Autumn 34

Autumn Gold

Autumn Leaves at Edgehill University 35

Autumn Leaves at Newton-le-Willows 36

Autumn Trees Newton-le-Willows 37

Autumn Leaves on the Wirral Way 38

Autumn Leaves and Sky 39

Port Sunlight Tree with Autumn Leaves

Port Sunlight Tree with Autumn Leaves (Crystal) 40

Autumn Leaves at Edgehill University

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Pillar Box at Edgehill

Tree in an Autumn Sunset 42

Autumn in Dibbinsdale

Autumn in Dibbinsdale (Cubist) 43

Autumn Tree Birkenhead Park with Golden Leaves

Autumn Sunset

Autumn in Dibbinsdale (Crystal) 44

Autumn’s End

Misty Day in Birkenhead Park

Trees in Birkenhead Park on a Misty Morning 45

Tree with Two Red Leaves on a Misty Day 46

Tree with Two Red Leaves on a Misty Day (Cubist) 47

Last Leaves of Autumn 48

Trees at Winter Sunrise

On a withered branch A crow has alighted: Nightfall in autumn.

(Bashu)

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Essence of AUTUMN is a collection of photographs which seek to capture the true spirit of autumn by a process of abstraction or semiabstraction and anthropomorphism. Stunning images distil the colours and the sensations of the most mellow and beautiful of the seasons from the first hints of red and yellow in the trees through the golden light of October to the final leaves clinging to the bare branches against stark powder blue skies.

Essence of AUTUMN 50