I encountered grief. People instinctively know. There is a place we go deep inside ourselves at the testing times in life. Mine I discovered to be outside and inside simultaneously as I literally found myself while alone photographing empty Pennine uplands. The spirituality of land, water, and sky made a connection that has never since left - the cycle of seasons rolling towards every person's rejoining that earth. Sounds gloomy. It's not. It's just a longer perspective on mankind than the previous perhaps arrogance of my reportage concentration on people's current activities. Now I find strength through that perspective of man's forming, and being formed by, the living earth in its intimacy as well as its grand sweep.

Barry Thornton