Photograph by Edwin Smith

Salisbury Cathedral, Wiltshire, 1959

Few photographers have created such an audacious view of a cathedral. Olive Cook's words best describe this photograph:

"The startling photograph above, taken with a large plate camera, brilliantly captures the lucidity and linear elegance of the Salisbury nave; and in making the black Purbeck marble column the pivot of the composition the photographer underlines the importance of the contrast between this darkest marble and the Chilmark stone of the fabric, for it is this which brings the flawless logic of the elevations to life."