Fay Godwin
Fay Godwin was a photographer known for her poetic black-and-white interpretations of the British landscape and portraits of prominent writers. Born to British-American parents, she settled in London in the late 1950s. Her interest in photography began with taking pictures of her young sons in the 1960s. After five or so years as a portrait photographer she moved into book production. Godwin published her first landscape photography book, The Oldest Road, in 1975. She rose to prominence in the late 1980s with the exhibition and accompanying book Land (1985), becoming the first living photographer featured on ITV’s South Bank Show in 1986. President of the Ramblers’ Association (1987–90) and campaigner for open access to the countryside, an appreciation of the British landscape underpinned her environmental activism. She increasingly sought to represent activist interests in her practice; for example, the photographic book Our Forbidden Land (1990) documents environmental degradation. She collaborated with various writers during her career, including a co-authored book with Poet Laureate Ted Hughes. Accolades include Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society (1992) and Honorary Doctorate of Arts at De Montfort University (2002).
