Rob Hudson talks to photographer Michael Jackson about his Poppit Sands sequence.

November 26, 2011 • Rob Hudson


Michael Jackson is best known for his 4-year-old (and continuing) exploration of the beach at Poppit Sands near Cardigan in west Wales. That length of commitment, which startles most photographers, is all the more remarkable because his chosen patch is little more than the size of a football pitch. He always uses the same camera, an ancient Hasselblad 500 CM and a 50mm lens that always stays on the same settings.

 

That particular camera has paid dividends in his photographic career. Three years running he has been shortlisted for the Hasselblad Masters Competition for some quite beautiful images; they immediately struck me for their wide range of tones from deep, rich blacks to startling, silvery highlights. There is an otherworldly, almost alien, quality to his work. What you’re looking at is ambiguous, with a tendency to carry you to a different place. Relying primarily on sweeping lines, intriguing shapes and contrasting textures formed by the interaction of sand and water, you could almost think of it like music, a beautiful melody or a song. And that’s not just your author spiralling off into some metaphorical epiphany. Ansel Adams said, “I can look at a fine art photograph and sometimes I can hear music.”

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In Film, Interviews, Michael Jackson, Needs Paid Subscription, Photographers, Rob Hudson, Wales

14 Responses

  1. Nigel Clarke

    Oh my – what an incredible series of photo’s. They seem very ‘other worldly’ and remind me of the satellite images of far flung planets.
    Beautiful.

    On November 26, 2011 at 1:56 pm • Reply
  2. David OBrien

    Beautiful and thought-provoking imagery. A really interesting interview with such a diverse array of photographic topics covered….really enjoyed it.

    On November 26, 2011 at 3:15 pm • Reply
  3. haimesa

    Absolutely stunning images: thank you Mike and Rob. Inspirational stuff.

    On November 26, 2011 at 4:56 pm • Reply
  4. Joe Wright

    This is beautiful work Michael, highly creative and certainly full of meaning! I look forward to checking back over the years to see how this series develops.
    Thanks for a great article Rob.

    On November 26, 2011 at 8:43 pm • Reply
  5. jonb

    Great interview and great photographer. I find myself agreeing with everything this man is saying and it all rings true for my practice – I’ve even listened to a Philip Glass track obsessively for inspiration!

    I started a project on Scarborough’s beach last year when I was living there, which is a difficult place for landscape photography to say the least – I can’t think of one notable photograph made there. Temptation is always to go down the coast to where the geology is striking and interesting images are almost guaranteed, if not sameish. Out of desperation I simply started to tilt the tripod lower and lower when working in Scarborough, like Mr. Jackson says. In the end I worked on a series not too dissimilar, but of kelp and sand. When you have something like a beach at your disposal, which is so interchangeable, changing every day, it’s almost like going to a different landscape every time you visit anyway. Once you discover that world and start exploring, it never gets old. I can completely understand his long term commitment in that way.

    It’s truly amazing how photographing sand would occur to so few people and how many photographers simply dismiss Scarborough and other ‘unphotogenic’ beaches altogether. There really is a world beneath our feet!

    On November 27, 2011 at 12:29 am • Reply
  6. milouvision

    Terrific interview, and a terrific portrait by Rob.

    On November 27, 2011 at 9:10 pm • Reply
  7. Joe Cornish

    Thank-you Rob for a great interview (and portrait). I love Michael’s pictures. It may interest him to know that although he feels they come all from within, or from the Appollo moonshot, they reminded me tremendously of work that John Blakemore did during his Spirit of Place series in the late-70s. The square format and monochrome intensity is also reminiscent of Michael Kenna too. But perhaps the scariest thing of all is that they also look like work I did as a student, when I was at my most ‘influenced-by-Blakemore’ stage. I still have the negs and prints, mostly made in 1979/80/81. Don’t get me wrong, they are miles better than anything I did. But I can honestly say that if I had ever stuck with it in the way he has I might have come up with a similar aesthetic. I feel spookily like I am looking at something I should have done.
    I realise his matter-of-fact description of his approach and process is totally unpretentious, but I hope he won’t mind if I make some slightly more poetic observations of his work. Michael’s sense of light and texture is wonderfully simple, sculptural, gestural. The abstraction in it is greatly enhanced by the absence of colour. Yes, they are photographs of sand on a beach, but the images brilliantly suggest the depths of human emotion on the one hand, and the minutiae and grandeur of the universe on the other. Anyone who thinks it is meaningless is, in my opinion, a jaded urbanite cynic, or devoid of any remaining vestige of a childlike imagination (which we surely all need for this art form).
    The exciting thing to me is that these images could be made on any of a hundred (thousand?) sandy beaches around the shores of the UK; or anywhere around the coastlines of the world for that matter. It suggests to us all that we could open our eyes to the sand, and ask, ‘what if…’?
    It will be great to see finished prints in real life, and if they are selenium/gold toned darkroom prints, even better!
    Joe

    On November 28, 2011 at 11:52 pm • Reply
    • Rob Hudson

      Thanks so much Joe, what a wonderful revealing, thoughtful and impassioned response!

      You are quite right about Blakemore’s Spirit of Place sequence, in fact I was aware of that, or at least the the quotes of his I used were from that chapter in his ‘Black and White Photography Workshop‘. Although in truth I only looked at that chapter when on holiday a couple of weeks after the interview so the idea of asking would never have occurred to me at the time. I guess I’ll have to do the interview again now! It is, though, of the one reasons I thought they were so apposite (I probably should have mentioned that connection) although I’m not sure Mike Jackson was aware of them. And even if he was, that spark could only have been a starting point, Mike has taken the idea and made it his own. In my humble opinion Mike Jackson’s use of light and shape is actually rather superior to Blakemore‘s, if one is allowed to utter such heresies here!

      Tim had let slip on the phone that you’d done something similar in your student days. But in truth I think many of us have seen those intriguing shapes and patterns in the sand and have pointed our camera downwards, myself included. Maybe it is the lack of pursuit which distinguishes us. Isn’t it strange how a simple idea can be transformed with the proper application of time and repetition? I think Mike’s great leap is grasping that realisation, holding on to it and allowing it to grow and develop into something very special. That I think is more appropriately the lesson us photographers should take away from his work – find an idea and run with it.

      I should also say that the “well known photographer” did put the emphasis on the word “beautiful” in his description of its meaninglessness. So perhaps I’ve made him sound more cynical and jaded than I wanted. But I understood what he means, even if I disagreed. We live in an age where the dissection of the meaning behind art has become a commonplace substitute for appreciation. That is why I was so intrigued by Mike’s work, where he’d stuck to the idea of simple beauty in spite of that context. I also wanted to introduce some ideas about abstraction, which I hoped would deepen the appreciation for the reader as much as they did for me. It is almost liberating to discover we can just look and love again.

      Thanks again Joe and thanks especially for “gestural” such a wonderful word to use in this context, it implies a humanity within the pictures, which leads me to imagine a sort of dance being played out before our eyes. Now that thought is a childlike delight!

      On November 29, 2011 at 1:22 am • Reply
  8. Rob Hudson

    And while I’m here can I pass on my thanks to all the other people who have taken the time to read the interview and pen a comment. I read and enjoyed every one of them and they mean a great deal to me.

    On November 29, 2011 at 1:27 am • Reply
  9. MikeJackson

    Thank you all for taking the time to write such warm comments. To hear that others enjoy the beauty of some sand and some water really fills me with delight. I just wish that I could articulate it as well as you all do.

    On November 29, 2011 at 9:47 am • Reply
  10. David Barrett

    Mike’s images, vision, perseverance, humour, down-to-earthyness—can I use the word inspirational here again? Yes, why not? Inspirational. Thanks to Rob for a job very well done, too [applauds!].

    On November 29, 2011 at 4:24 pm • Reply
  11. robertwol

    As someone who spends a lot of time researching locations and timings, I’m embarrassed to admit a slight snigger at reading the first paragraph. Now I know better, what fantastic images, I really want to go see these in a gallery. Thanks for the lesson Michael and Rob!

    On November 29, 2011 at 8:02 pm • Reply
  12. Adam Pierzchala

    Stunning work and hugely inspirational! Excellent interview and I agree that Michael’s easy-going nature seems to shine through – not that I have ever met him. Despite the restricted nature of the subject the sheer variety of work here is amazing!

    On a broader note, must there always be “a meaning” in order for beautiful work to be recognised and remembered as such? Maybe I am too much of a simple soul, but if it’s beautiful to my eye, then that’s good enough for me. And since clearly the artist thought it beautiful enough to record, we are on the same wavelength and I don’t need to know what he or she was thinking. Thanks for this article; it has given me a lot of pleasure. Rgds., Adam

    On December 3, 2011 at 10:29 pm • Reply
  13. John Dominick

    Having only just found the time to go back through past issues I have been stopped dead in my tracks by Michael’s absolutley wonderful images. They are beautifully observed and create a compelling body of work, truly inspirational.

    On December 26, 2011 at 11:59 am • Reply

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