The The Outdoor Guide team were invited to film Julia Bradbury officially open Jay Appleton’s joint exhibition of his work at the Royal Geographical Society. The exhibition was called Image, Instinct and Imagination: Landscape as Sign Language. We hear how his friendship with Julia blossomed and how his work has inspired others and how it is re-presented through Simon Warner’s photographs.
Jay was a British geographer who proposed ‘habitat theory’ and advanced the notion of ‘prospect-refuge’. The theory states that taste in art is ‘an acquired preference for particular methods of satisfying inborn desires.’ The two desires are for opportunity (prospect) and safety (refuge). Tracing these two desires gives us a means of understanding successful and enduring aesthetics, and the ability to predict the same.
“Jay and the Bradbury family became firm friends after he wrote the most moving letter to Julia following her Railway Walks series. For many years Jay and his family have been welcomed in the Bradbury home and referred to as the surrogate grandfather! His presence will always be with us.”
Julia and the Bradbury family x
Watch the film here: