The Emerald Necklace Project

n the back gallery we present Hugh Hamshaw Thomas’ response to the 19th century landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted’s Emerald Necklace - the linear chain of public parks he designed in Boston. Olmsted was greatly inspired by the distinctly British ideal of realising the sublime through nature and based his many park and garden designs on the landscapes he engaged with as he toured Great Britain. Hamshaw Thomas undertook his own walking tours of Olmsted’s now mature parks in Boston, applying his manipulated photography to Olmsted’s manipulations of nature. With a colour palette inspired by the period, and in particular the notable art collector, Isabella Stuart Gardener, this body of photographic work is realised in four colour tints: Emerald, Pigeon Blood Ruby, Porcelain Blue and Antique Silver.