Fay Godwin
author · photographer
Fay Godwin (1931–2005) was a prominent British photographer renowned for her black-and-white landscapes of the British countryside and coastline. Born in Berlin to a British diplomat father and an American artist mother, she moved to London in 1958. She began photography in 1966 as a self-taught hobby, initially capturing family snapshots before evolving into portraiture and documentary work. Godwin became a significant figure in the London literary scene, photographing numerous notable writers of the 20th century. Her landscape practice was deeply informed by an ecological awareness of the late 1970s and 1980s. She achieved major critical success with her book 'Land' (1985), which explored Britain as ancient terrain. In later years, she received a Fellowship at the National Museum of Photography in Bradford, leading to explorations in color and urban documentary. Her archive was bequeathed to the British Library.[1,3,4,5]
- landscape photography
- documentary photography
- British countryside
- ecological crisis
Books
-
Land€13.00
Works by Fay Godwin
- 1985 Land With John Fowles
- 1999 Glassworks & Secret Lives With Ian Jeffrey
- 2001 Landmarks: A Survey With an introduction by Simon Armitage and an essay by Roger Taylor
- 1973 Rebecca the Lurcher With Andrew Simpson
- 1975 The Oldest Road: An Exploration of the Ridgeway Co-authored with J.R.L. Anderson
- 1979 Remains of Elmet: A Pennine Sequence With poems by Ted Hughes
- 1994 Elmet New additional poems and photographs
- 1983 The Saxon Shore Way With Alan Sillitoe
Works about Fay Godwin
- 2005 Fay Godwin Obituary by Ian Jeffrey
Exhibitions
- 2001 Retrospective
Awards
- 1990 Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society