Vision, Values
'I am one of those people usually happiest when outdoors, so first of all shooting landscape is simply a fusion of the work I love doing most, which is making pictures, in the place I most enjoy being, which is outside.
I first started to see light as a 'quality' in its own right while I was still at school, messing about with pencils and paints. When I discovered the camera at university there was an immediate 'correct fit'. I was still making pictures, but with light. I was instantly happy with the camera.
Most of my first photographic efforts, with a cheap 35mm SLR and black and white film, were of landscape. By the time I did my degree show, my interest in using paint and materials had withered and in essence I was already a photographer. I knew what I wanted to say with photography. The feeling I wanted to convey was the energy of nature, its theatre of light, its sculptural power, its patterns. To a surprising extent I was able to achieve those aims with my novice's technique, partly because of the simple monochrome style of my photos, and my experience of making drawings. In my early years I was forced by circumstance to try many things in photography to make a living. But I never lost that love of the natural landscape, and the beauty to be found within it. In certain respects my work has travelled full circle, and I am again doing what I did as a student, exploring the theatre of light and form on a beach with my camera.
Colour is now fundamental to what I do, and with colour comes other opportunities (and limitations too!). I am enchanted by wildflowers for example, or by the spectacle of an autumnal woodland, or the magical colour of the sun setting below a storm front. These simple blessings of light and time are the fundamentals of our visual journey through life. They are easy to take for granted, to ignore even, but to me they represent the self-evident truth of nature's beauty. My job is to remain connected to them, to reflect the inspiration they provide, to be naïve enough to see wonder in the dewdrops on a spider's web.
My idea of good landscape photography revolves around the idea that a photographer must make the subject matter absolutely clear and easy to understand, yet find a way of seeing it that is fresh, new, surprising in some way. There is a balance to be achieved, where the photographer reveals the subject matter without drawing too much attention to the photographic process.
For me the view camera is fundamental to helping me in that quest. You can read more about that in the equipment section...
A few years ago I discovered the Zen maxim, 'Develop an infallible technique, then put yourself at the mercy of inspiration.'This still seems to me to describe the ideal state for a landscape photographer. More recently I have come to understand landscape photography as three pathways, or to use a modern analogy borrowed from Photoshop, three layers. These are, 1. Photographic technique, 2. Artistic style, and 3. Head, heart and soul. It is the successful merging of technique and art that gives expression to the ideas, the feelings and the very beliefs of the photographer.
Recently I got asked at a party what I did. On being told 'landscape photographer' the questioner asked me whether I had a proper job. In the past, some members of my family have been equally sceptical about photography as a career. I am never sure whether such views of photography are generated by doubts about the ability of a photographer to make a decent living, or whether it is seen as simply not an important job, such as nursing or teaching.
As a travel photographer I often had to ask myself the question, "is there a point to this picture?" I am less functional about my images now. They are about a feeling, an inspiration. They are for me, but also to provide pleasure for others. Yet as part of the bigger picture I see my work as - I hope - helping to inspire a connection with nature. Because I am able to share my love of landscape through my prints and publications, I can remind the viewer of their connection with it too. Since I feel that the future of humankind quite possibly depends on whether we can rediscover our sense of belonging to the natural world, I have come to see landscape photography as quite a worthwhile job, as well as a lot of fun!'