Sally Mason: Silence in the Landscape

Stillness in motion

“Being immersed in nature is a restorative act.”

SALLY MASON is a landscape photographer based in the Cotswolds, UK. Her passion for photography began early in life and continued throughout a long career as a film producer in London. Since leaving the film industry in 2020, it has become a full-time pursuit.

In the following article, reproduced with kind permission from the Silence issue of SOULFUL PHOTOGRAPHY (No. 11 September/October 2025), Sally outlines the raison d’être behind her stunning photographs and the way in which the English landscape has become an embodiment of silent presence itself.

Sally Mason, Stillness In Motion - The Culturium — © Sally Mason, *Stillness. In Motion.*

Photography has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. In the beginning, it was a way to document the world around me—mainly people and events. I also photographed my travels overseas, drawn to the unfamiliar and the visual richness of new places. But over time, I became more aware of photography as an art form. I began experimenting with alternative darkroom techniques—multiple exposures, photograms and solarization. That process opened up new ways of seeing and taught me that photography could be more than just representation. It could be abstract, expressive, emotional. That shift led to a deeper interest in the creative, interpretive side of image-making.

But in the years that followed, as my career in film production took centre stage, photography became a more occasional pursuit—something I returned to when time and space allowed.

That changed in 2020. Like many people, the pandemic brought a sudden and dramatic pause. I lost my job and left London for the countryside. Within weeks, I had a new camera in hand and found myself walking the same local paths each day. The world had stilled. Roads were empty, skies silent and in that unfamiliar quiet, I began to pay attention in new ways. At first, I noticed the absence of noise. But what followed was more surprising: the presence of silence. It invited me to listen, to slow down, to see differently.

I began taking photographs every day—driven by a renewed sense of purpose and creative energy. That daily practice quickly became both a grounding ritual and a turning point. I started to see the landscape as alive with subtle motion—grasses bending in the breeze, the soft ripples of water, branches arching overhead. Even in stillness, there was movement. I responded with the camera, using long exposures and intentional camera motion to capture what I was sensing, not just what I was seeing. The images that emerged were blurred, painterly and quiet. They reflected not just the look of the land but the experience of being within it.

This body of work found form in my book Stillness. In Motion., published in 2024 by Kozu Books. The collection brings together images made during my countryside walks and coastal explorations, and reflects an ongoing fascination with the fleeting, the in-between and the almost unseen. At its core, the work is about the stillness that arises from being deeply present in the landscape and the quiet sense of motion that exists within it. Stillness and movement aren’t opposites here but part of the same experience—interwoven, responsive, alive. These photographs don’t attempt to define the landscape but to be present within it—to be felt, not just seen.

Being immersed in nature—while trying to capture its elemental beauty—is a restorative act for me. It brings stillness, clarity and a deep sense of wellbeing. Creating images that reflect my emotional relationship with the landscape matters more to me than literal representation. The photographs are, ultimately, an invitation to slow down, to look more closely and to notice what might otherwise go unseen—and unheard.

For further information on her photographic work, visit Sally Mason’s website.
Single issues and subscriptions of the magazine are available from the
magazine’s founder and editor, Kedar Misani, at SOULFUL PHOTOGRAPHY.

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Soulful Photography Magazine, Silence - The Culturium

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