Beyond The Forest: About A People Believed To Be The Descendants Of The Children That Were Led Out Of Hamelin

The name Transylvania translates literally from the Hungarian into Clare Richardson's title, "beyond the forest." Richardson uses photography to enter into the world of a small farming community there, a historical region high on a plateau, believed to be the home of the descendants of the children who were led out of Hamlyn. The community relies on hard work and patience to survive in a land where weather and crop cycles set the pace, and where the landscape, not coincidentally, looks not just like Hamlyn's fairy tale scenes might have, but like pre-industrial, pre-enclosure England. Since her first publication, Harlemville, Richardson's contemporary pastoral work, including the related Romanian series Sylvan, has been shown in London and Canada.