Lord Charles March Goes Into the Woods

Inspired by his father, the Duke of Richmond, Lord Charles March first picked up a camera at the age of 10 and has been holding one pretty much ever since. Parlaying his passion into a career at just 16 years old, March spent three decades as an award-winning commercial photographer, shooting for clients like Levi’s and ICI. When March, now 60, retired, he began taking care of his family’s verdant country home in Sussex, the Goodwood Estate. And thus, Goodwood, which has been a reoccurring subject in March’s personal photography, became the muse for his latest body of work, Wood Lands, which is now on view at Venus Over Manhattan until February 2nd.

In the exhibit, wooded landscapes are represented as hazy mirages of light and shadow. “My early work was very controlled. It was all in the studio. This new work is so loose in comparison,” says March of the abstract images. “I am literally throwing the camera around.” Streaked by the soft-focus of a long exposure, March’s rhythmic images recall the painterly romanticism of the British masters, but in a way that feels fresh. “At the advent of photography, [artists] very much believed that this would be a way of representing the divine in a completely realistic, unadulterated way,” explains March. “But these are really about capturing the feelings of being somewhere, instead of the place.”