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Linda Bembridge
Linda Bembridge is an amateur photographer based in Buckinghamshire. She is passionate about photographing the landscape in all its forms. She strives to capture the emotion of the wide vista’s whilst at the same time discovering and exploring the beauty in the detail of the ‘intimate landscape’ all around us.
Michéla Griffith
In 2012 I paused by my local river and everything changed. I’ve moved away from what many expect photographs to be: my images deconstruct the literal and reimagine the subjective, reflecting the curiosity that water has inspired in my practice. Water has been my conduit: it has sharpened my vision, given me permission to experiment and continues to introduce me to new ways of seeing.
Linda’s work has been on my radar for a while, so I was pleased to see her triptychs feature in Issue 99’s 4x4 Portfolio, even if it did mean I had to wait a little while before inviting her to be interviewed. She loves taking detailed photographs of subjects that, as images, may be unrecognisable in themselves but which can be reconfigured or presented to resemble other landscapes, or otherwise leave room for the viewer’s imagination.
Can you tell me a little about your background – your education, early interests and career? You mentioned that creativity plays a part in your work too?
I grew up and was educated in North London apart from 3 years at Manchester University studying for a degree in Finance, after which I returned to London to train and qualify as a Chartered Accountant. I didn’t want to focus on the more traditional areas of accounting so I ventured into other aspects of finance specialising in accounting for Investment Banks, now a somewhat toxic area but things were very different then. I found my time in this industry absolutely fascinating. It was very much a ‘work hard play hard’ environment which I embraced with much enthusiasm.
About 15 years ago I took the opportunity to move to a Software Company where my banking experience could be combined with software solutions specifically designed for the Banking and Telecommunications Industry. I remain in that sector and my job is seldom the same from one day to the next. My role is to interpret a customer’s requirements and to work with software designers and application developers to create a solution tailored specifically to the needs of the customer.
Your parents have a long standing interest in photography, but your interest has developed relatively recently. How did this come about?
From an early age I have immersed myself in creative hobbies such as Tapestry, Quilting and other pursuits requiring an awareness of design and pattern etc. This has probably laid the foundation for my present fascination for landscape photography.