on landscape The online magazine for landscape photographers

Endframe: Seattle Gasworks by David Fokos

Michael Prince talks about one of his favourite images

Michael Prince

Mike Prince Landscape photographer living in the Lake District. Photographing across the Lakes, Wales, Scotland and the Scottish Islands. I prefer dark days and bad weather- they allow the landscape to show through. The most frequent comment made on my images is 'moody'; I try to convey a sense of what the place looked like and more importantly felt like to 'me' at that moment.I like images where you can smell the rain and feel the wind on your face. NB (Mike not Michael - different bloke)



Some images pass by while others grab your attention immediately but still allow you to move on. Others both grab your attention immediately and get under your skin. I remember the process here of being struck instantly but then returning time and time again to this image which is filled to the brim with perfection. Those looking at my own photographs might be surprised at my choice of an image of a Gasworks by David Fokos. Although I tend to shy away from the man made, there are occasions where, if only in graphic terms, the hand of mankind has added something to the landscape.

I find immense pleasure in the wide format here, it creates space. I enjoy the fact that the space has, in one interpretation, been left empty. Alternatively it is filled with texture from the grass. There is a bleakness and mood which probably explain my being drawn to it.

I remember the process here of being struck instantly but then returning time and time again to this image which is filled to the brim with perfection.
The strong diagonal would stretch to infinity but for being anchored by the building.The tower, positioned pretty much exactly on the thirds, suits my OCD and then the utter joy of the short stretch of path together with the cut in the slope that joins with it, takes the great to the spectacular.

Immaculate processing make the final image complete. Where David Fokos and I do overlap is with his fundamental statement, ‘. Rather than show what these places look like, I want to show how they feel.’ Personal taste being what it is, this sits with me as an incomparable image, truly fine, perhaps one of the finest.



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