Away to me

“Documentary photograph, 85mm lens, from just behind a farmer's shoulder, sideways rain. A steep hillside in Snowdonia, Wales: wet rust-coloured bracken, dry-stone walls, low cloud rolling over slate ridges. A Welsh hill farmer, 68, ruddy weathered face, white stubble, rain dripping from his tweed flat cap, a torn waxed jacket, a hazel crook, whistles with two fingers in his mouth. Ahead in the grass a black-and-white border collie crouches low, eyes locked on a tight bunch of twenty wet Welsh Mountain sheep further up the slope. Palette: bracken rust, slate grey, wet green, off-white fleece. Real rain streaks, mud, wet fur. No readable text, no logos.

“At the farmer's whistle the collie springs forward and runs a wide arc up the hill to the left, flattening into the grass; the sheep bunch and turn downhill together; the farmer lowers his hand. Long lens, slight handheld drift. Sound: wind, rain, a sharp two-note whistle, sheep bleating.