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It must have been rather fab to research this, and it's terrific to encounter artists involved in the genre.
- milouvision, 11:20 16th Junon Camera Survey
It might be interesting to see how the votes would stack if you asked in three months to repeat the survey, I for one missed the original request. It's a very interesting survey and nice to see that Pentax still have such a large following, likewise the medium and large format categories, [...]
- Douglas Salteri, 08:54 16th Junon Is Adobe Creative Cloud Bad For Photographers?
Great article Paul! I hope Adobe will continue to develop Photoshop with new features for photographers. I would love some new adjustment layers, how about midtone contrast (a.k.a clarity)?
- Magnus Lindbom, 07:32 16th Jun
Book review
Tim Parkin
Your humble editor, ex-mathematician, A&R for U2, web developer to the Queen, guitarist and general geek-boy.
Other articles by Tim Parkin
Michael Marten’s “Sea Change” recalls Ariel’s song in Shakespeare’s Tempest
Full fathom five thy father lies:
Of his bones are coral made:
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
And the book is all about a transformation and of that rich and strange – the movement of the tides and the opening and closing of the tidal zone. The idea is simple – turn up at evocative places during periods of maximum tidal range and photograph when the tide is in and the tide is out – compare and contrast. The result is something more than the parts though – in the time between the two shots the light has changed, often dramatically; people who sprawl in the new land uncovered are replaced by the fisherman and boats; in one fold out triptych a tidal swimming pool fills up with people in between tides until the visitors are inexorably pushed back to the coastline once the full tide returns.
Robert MacFarlane writes better than anyone about engagement with the land and sea and his introduction in this book is no exception. The images are documentary in nature with the compositions constructed to let the viewer draw their own conclusions. The locations will be familiar to many landscape photographers though with Staithes, Flamborough, Worm’s Head, St Mary’s lighthouse, Howick, Bedruthan, Seven Sisters, Sunderland Point – seeing them in such neutral light is quite revealing – Flamborough isn’t as white as you normally see it, the sea isn’t blurred, the skies - dictated by the times of the tides – don’t have the strong hues and saturation we’re familiar with seeing, beaches are full of footprints. This is most definitely a populated landscape.
My particular favourite spread of the book is the Solway Firth diptych, featured on the front and back cover of the book. The salmon fishing nets have featured many a black and white photographers portfolio but it’s the rough seas that replace them that engage me – the curl of the wave reminiscent of Gustave le Gray with a typically British heavy sky.
Other favourites are the classic Staithes view and the revealed skeleton of a boat at Beaumont Quay in Essex.
A lot of readers may be underwhelmed by the lack of overtly composed perspective, complimentary light or dramatic subject matter but the book’s premise is communicating an idea and feeling about the coast and spending a while with these pictures does convey that.
Michael has produced a beautifully crafted and reproduced book that clearly deserves a place in a varied photography bookshelf. I’ve been trying to give myself space to enjoy different approaches to photography, not just trying to discover the next heroic, sublime, deliberated masterpiece and although some artists still don’t engage me it is nice when I find ones that reward time invested.
Michael has an exhibition 26th-30th of September at the Oxo gallery (gallery@oxo) on the South Bank in London. The book is available from Michael’s website or Beyond Words. You can see more of Michael’s work at www.michaelmarten.com.
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Excellent. The exhibition is already in the calendar.
“the next heroic, sublime, deliberated masterpiece”… too true, too true. Those words unfortunately describe most landscape work out there. These photographs are studies of place and time and have a presence about them that is more difficult to construct than “the next heroic, sublime, deliberated masterpiece”.
Thanks for the excellent – and speedy – review, Tim. You do turn things around fast! Neil
Excellent review and book added to my wish list as exhibition to far away. great studies of how landscapes change in the short period of time by changing one element
An interesting idea which certainly appears to reveal more about landscape when a ‘rigid’ temporal aspect is imposed than licence to choose tends to. Exhibition added to my calendar!
this book looks really great; such a simple idea, beautifully executed. I look forward to the exhhibition
Wonderful book, and no reason not to buy this – it’s available at under £20 on Amazon! Grab it while you can…