The lane | 2020
First lockdown.
I went looking for sanity, I found peace.
And made 10 little books at home for the neighbours of the lane.

Stéphane Bruchet
Cultural Landscape
_______________________
‣ About the project
- The Boggeragh Uplands
- The visual archive
‣ Sample galleries
- Scenery
- Stones
- Roads
- Signs
- Services
- Leftovers
- Afforestation
- Gates
- Trees
- Bog
- Heroes
- Wind farms
A sense of place
at the crossroads of geography, history and culture.
Natural characteristics set the foundations of the landscape. Human activities modify it. Political concerns produce mental landscapes and digital innovation introduces virtual ones.
The Eastern edge of the Munster Mountain Ridge is not as spectacular as its coastal Western side, but the Boggeragh uplands offer a succession of hills and valleys more accommodating to human habitat than the western peaks.
From Musheramore (Alt 643m), the elevation drops sharply westwards towards Millstreet (Alt 134m) and on the Southern slope towards Macroom (Alt 118m). It is more gentle on the northern side, with a long plateau dropping towards Mallow (Alt: 74m) and a gradual descent towards Blarney (Alt: 55m) on the eastern side.
Above 300m, monoculture forestry and wind farms compete with the rich blanket bog.
Between 300m and 150m, the land, naturally marginal, has been reclaimed for agriculture.
362 hectares of the uplands are designated Natural Heritage Area and The Boggeragh Mountains were surveyed in 2023 for inclusion in the Geological Heritage of Cork.
Human occupation in the uplands spans over 4000 years. Today, 6 hubs remain over 150m. They provide a fundamental community link through public services, convenience shops or recreational amenities. Small residential estates in the heart of the villages are replacing isolated dwellings once scattered across the uplands. Traditional farming and trades have shaped the land and are remembered in stories. Heroes are commemorated on plaques. Newcomers bring external influence and adapt to the vernacular.
An intricate network of trails have connected the uplands for millenia. Most have been upgraded as part of the modern road network. Modern forestry and wind farms roads double up as recreational walkways.
Altitude is not a key marker of administrative geography, but it is etched in names and memories. The townlands, established in the 12th century, were mostly delimited by natural boundaries, an heritage reflected in their names.
Donoughmore is a split parish between ‘upper’ and ‘lower’, the latter refers mostly to the Shournaugh valley. Children who used to attend secondary school in Blarney were called ‘Apaches’ well into the 80s.
Parts of the Country are seen as distinct regional entities, where natural and cultural geographies transcends administrative boundaries.
The Burren and Connemara regions are rich with megalithic artefacts and strongly associated with traditional culture and identities. The Golden Vale is recognised for its fertile plains and dairy production. Closer to home, the Gearagh, with its unique ecosystem and culture, only remains in memory.
Those regional entities, varying in size, are all defined by homogenous physical characteristics (geology, climate, soils,…) where humans adapted by developing a specific vernacular (language, building, land use,…). They span several civil parishes or break county lines.
In the same way, the Boggeragh Uplands constitute a homogenous area over 200 square kilometres. Human activity can be seen through what is left behind, from Megaliths to communication dishes. Settlements and Farming techniques have shaped the natural environment. Routes and pathways, often following physical features of the lands, have played a vital role in linking upland communities while the challenging topography made it difficult to connect with the valleys below.
Technological progress and political resolve can flatten mountains and reduce distances. From the 18th century, improved roads, such as the Butter Road and the R579, facilitated trade or the movement of troops. Other infrastructures projects, such as the Famine Roads, were launched to provide meagre employment in times of hardship.
Similarly, electrification and the advent of the car have opened and connected the uplands. Electric poles first appeared along the roads or across fields, then petrol pumps in villages or between them. Transmitter masts were erected on most hilltops and summits of the Boggeragh, initially for radio and TV broadcasts. Today, They host a wide array of antennas, drums, cell towers to cater for the demands of always on connections.
Driving those roads at speed today doesn’t mean much, yet many signs remain of their significant impact on upland life. Travelling across the uplands is not about going from one place to the next. It is often just a journey about the place.
Stéphane Bruchet
Cultural Landscape
_______________________
‣ About the project
- The Boggeragh Uplands
- The visual archive
‣ Sample galleries
- Scenery
- Stones
- Roads
- Signs
- Services
- Leftovers
- Afforestation
- Gates
- Trees
- Bog
- Heroes
- Wind farms
Looking at the landscape.
Landscape photography often brings to mind images of natural features, the spirit of the outdoors and natural beauty, clichés traditionally associated with postcards, calendars or jigsaws puzzles.
Similarly, running an image search for ‘landscape photography’ online returns a seemingly endless roll of hyper-realistic and calm inducing sceneries. There are over 78 millions images under this tag on Instagram, and it is becoming difficult to discriminate between photos taken with a camera and images digitally created by people, or increasingly by AI.
Photographer Robert Adams notes in his 1981 essay Truth and Landscape: ’Unspoiled places sadden us because they are, in an important sense, no longer true.’
If the camera captures reality objectively, the photographer’s approach and the viewer’s perspective are subjective. Additionally, the intention to engage in a landscape survey is rarely neutral.
Landscape photographic surveys have been commissioned for political, economical or planning reasons, undertaken by engaged artists to support a cause, or the result of aesthetic curiosity. Surveys from 150, 100 or 50 years ago have acquired new layers of meaning with time and have informed the making of more recent surveys.
Satellite imagery, surveillance and drones have made landscape photography more scientific than aesthetic in its approach. The traditional time consuming, cumbersome and technical image making process has been practically replaced by connected smartphones, allowing the taking, processing and sharing of an image to happens in mere seconds.
The Boggeragh uplands offer beautiful sceneries. Continuous human activity over thousands of years has left traces, and very little remain unspoilt. This project has grown organically through frequent visits and conversations with the locals. It is an attempt at documenting this natural and cultural ecosystem as it continues to evolve.
Technical information.
Concept:
To build an open ended photo archive of the Boggeragh mountains.
Origin / inspiration:
I started to take photos in the uplands since 2010. Over the years, I became familiar with the lie of the land and the local history. I presented the first iteration of this nascent project in Ballincollig Library in 2019. In parallel, I spent time studying landscape photography, with special interest for the works of Timothy O’Sullivan and Robert Adams in the USA, as well as the Mission Photographique DATAR in France.
It is the discovery of the Atlas des Regions Naturelles, an ambitious endeavour started by Eric Tabuchi & Nelly Monnier in 2017 that helped me articulate the direction and development of this archive.
Presentation:
Themes and categories evolve as the archive grows. Sequencing and presenting should be fluid and adaptable to different forums and audiences. The primary support for presentation should focus on prints, with digital or online as a repository.
Presentaion examoples are provided in the sample gallery menu (left)
Potential use cases:
- Talks (supported by presentation of prints) to various audiences.
- Upland communities.
- Secondary school students (link to History or Geography curricula).
- Local Camera clubs.
- Cork County planning Department.
- Presentation of prints in libraries, gallery or commercial spaces.
- Selection of prints in book form.
Relevance:
Photography was invented in the early 1820s. I would like this project to coincide with bicentennial celebration of the the birth of photography.
Stéphane Bruchet
Cultural Landscape
_______________________
‣ About the project
- The Boggeragh Uplands
- The visual archive
‣ Sample galleries
- Scenery
- Stones
- Roads
- Signs
- Services
- Leftovers
- Afforestation
- Gates
- Trees
- Bog
- Heroes
- Wind farms









Stéphane Bruchet
Cultural Landscape
_______________________
‣ About the project
- The Boggeragh Uplands
- The visual archive
‣ Sample galleries
- Scenery
- Stones
- Roads
- Signs
- Services
- Leftovers
- Afforestation
- Gates
- Trees
- Bog
- Heroes
- Wind farms








