Alex Drago - A History of Britain

Simon Schama's epic undertaking at the turn of the 21st century was the fifteen episode and three volume series A History of Britain, Schama's own highly personal and subjective account of British history. Schama's motivations were fairly straightforward; history is Britain's cultural bloodstream and as relationships with Europe and the wider world continue to evolve, the British need to know where they've come from to know where they're going.

Throughout A History of Britain landscape is used to communicate both the location and impact of historic events, but also to represent key philosophical ideas. By isolating and creating layers of a selection of landscapes in each episode, the intention was to create a single image to represent each of the significant periods in British history, while still allowing individual voices to express themselves in the narrative of the image.

These images symbolise the complex process of understanding British history at a time when the nation struggles with the weight of that history - the end of Empire and decline of international influence, population diversity, the decline of organised religion and growth of secularism, and the continued development of parliamentary democracy. Yet, despite the complexities and consequences of past events, there is still beauty to be found in those key ideas - the development of individual liberty, the rule of law and the relationship between the monarch, the state and the people - and therefore in the nation itself.

Please click on the images below to enter the gallery.