An insight into handbound books

By Adrian Joyner | April 29, 2018

For many years I have collected books of photographic images. I love them. And all those years my photography has been centred around me as a print-maker. But the walls and clamshell boxes fill up and the occasional exhibition, sale or gift of some treasured print did little to stem the burgeoning inventory.

And then about five years ago I read an article by Brooks Jensen the editor and publisher of the wonderful Lenswork magazine. This introduced me to the world of handmade artist’s books with beautiful papers and bindings that were a lovely way of presenting your images. He particularly championed the concept of simply bound ‘Chapbooks’ which are just a few pages long.

And digital printing is ideally suited to the medium of a one-off book. The quality of a well-crafted digital inkjet print will easily surpass almost all commercially printed books. The paper choices, especially if you stray from the usually coated inkjet papers, are myriad and delightful. Any photographer with some persistence and a few tools can turn a collection of their images into a crafted original artefact.

A year or so later I did an awesome digital negative and platinum printing workshop with David Chow at his home. This brilliant and generous teacher, who sadly died far too young, showed me his collection of handmade books by 21st Editions of New England. I particularly remember the exquisite Sally Mann book of beautiful bound original platinum prints that took my breath away. And perhaps it should as these editions sell upwards of $15,000 a time.

But we all know what the feeling is like when we view something we perceive as perfection. We know we never could achieve that standard, but we know it exists and that it can be done and it will forever form the aspiration and benchmark of our own work.

Handbound artist books now represent most of my photographic output. I think I am confident their legacy will be longer for my heirs than any of my stored boxes of prints, whilst taking up a lot less room and being immensely satisfying to produce. I like the idea that the images have to stand as a cohesive whole and not just a collection of ‘greatest hits’. I like the idea that they must be considered and sequenced. In binding a book with its oft considerable cost and labour you are making a statement that you do approve of the images and that they are finished – it helps to subdue the ever-present self-doubt. I like the feeling of working without an undo button where a careless mistake at the bookmaking process can wreck all your expensive work so far – just like it was in the darkroom days.

As well as sharing my experience with making one-off artist books I will also give some suggestions as to how you may have smallish quantities of books commercially printed for exhibitions, publicity or for sale. It is quite possible to economically self-publish a book of your images – you just must find a way to harness your social media and other resources to market and distribute them.

The Design of the Book

The basic structure of the book is dependent on the number of images, your bookbinding skill, the tools available and your personal taste. The number of ways of designing and constructing a book is endless and a short article like this will always be inadequate as instructional material. I can only advise that you buy a couple of books about bookbinding among the hundreds available from your local bookseller or Amazon and start reading and practising. As a start, I can recommend ‘Bookbinding – A step by step guide’ by Kathy Abbot.

And, of course, the internet is your friend as a treasure trove of instructional material and inspiration.

A short workshop at a local bookbinder or art college will be an invaluable help but ultimately the only way to learn is to start making some simple books yourself.

Some styles that I have used are as follows;

Accordion or Concertina Book

One of the simplest forms of book construction consisting of a continuous folded sheet of paper folded back and forth in page widths which is often pasted into a cover.

Stab-Binding

This Japanese method of making books is an excellent place to start. The book is a stack of single unfolded sheets and is simple to make and bind an elegant book.

Single Section Bindings

This would comprise a single set of folded papers sewn together to form a book block. It would often have a cover that would be bound to the section separately.

Multi-section Bindings

As the number of pages gets larger most books will then necessitate the use of two or more sections that must be sewn together. This also would usually have a hardcover bound to the book block.

Book Materials

A huge variety of paper and board using in the construction of a book is available from sources like Shepherds or Ratchfords. When printing photographic images, the obvious choice would be the increasing number of double-sided inkjet papers available. These papers can be expensive so I can recommend the Fotospeed Duo papers, the very economical Bockingford Inkjet Watercolour paper and Ilford Premium Matt Duo as good value reliable starters. Many of the Japanese inkjet Awagami papers are also double-sided.

Non-inkjet coated papers can, of course, be used to beautiful effect but with the inevitable loss of contrast. Some wonderful old and rare book papers which inkjet print well are available from www.vintagepaper.co as well as lots of other bookmaking supplies.

ICC profiles for printing are available for the coated papers but if you have the facilities you may wish to produce your own for the uncoated papers. Especially with these, it is important that you pay attention to soft-proofing, micro-contrast and sharpening to get the best output.

An early introduction to papers from any bookbinding instructional will stress the importance of the correct grain direction of the paper. For the pages of the book block, this should be ‘short’ and in the same direction as the fold. Almost all inkjet double-sided inkjet paper apart from some expensive Hahnemule paper seems to be long grain. I know it is supposed to be critical by I’ve never had any real problems with the use of long grain paper.

Sequencing your images

The photographs you want to include in the book are a personal choice and the reason why you want to make the book. It’s good if they have a strong compelling concept or ‘tell a story’ with or without additional text. In the end, it’s your call.

I fully admit that when I started I was very bad at sequencing my images. I’d read that it was the most important decision about a book but I just couldn’t get it. My early books didn’t really have any sequencing whatsoever and it certainly showed. A workshop with a couple of handmade book greats John Blakemore and Joseph Wright made things a lot clearer.

I usually make some small prints of all the eligible images, lay them out on a table and commence the culling and shuffling. If you feel comfortable without printed copies then Adobe Lightroom in ‘Survey’ mode on a collection will allow you to do the same on the computer screen.

A resource by Nicole Andermatt on her website is a really good read to start understanding sequencing techniques and options.

Her good advice is ‘Pay attention to beginning and end; visual and content related gaps, patterns, irregularities, shifts; paper quality, book and image size (why this size, why not smaller, bigger?), amount of images, text, typeface. Analyse things to death.’

Page Layout and Design

The software that you need for the layout of the pages prior to inkjet printing will ultimately depend on the size and complexity of your book design and the depth of your pocket.

I use Adobe InDesign for all my page layout requirements. It does have a bit of a learning curve but ultimately simplifies the complexities of building a multi-page book considerably. Unfortunately, it is now only available as part of an expensive Adobe Creative Cloud subscription. Older versions which claim to be legal de-activated software are often available on eBay. You certainly do not need to use the latest release of InDesign for a book layout. For simple books then Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Elements, Microsoft Word or Microsoft Publisher would be adequate.

An excellent step-by-step guide to designing and typesetting your book using Adobe InDesign is ‘Book Design made Simple’ by Fiona Raven and Glenna Collett. Although much of its content is about text rather than images it is a valuable resource as it specifically concentrates on book layout.

A pair of sequential facing pages is called a layout spread. For multi-section books, you will have to tackle the complexity of ‘imposition’ which is the process of creating printer spreads from layout spreads. For example, if you are editing an 8-page book the pages will be in sequential order in your layout program. However, when you print the two pages together on the single sheet of unfolded paper or ‘spread’ page 2 will be positioned next to page 7 so that when the paper is folded and collated the pages end up in the appropriate order. Commercial and free software is available to considerably ease this process of producing a printable printer spread in pdf format - Google ‘Indesign imposition’. This pdf can then be directly printed or exported as an image file as you wish.

Printing and Assembly

The equipment needed for the construction of a book will depend on its design and complexity. If you want to make a book that resembles a traditional high quality commercially produced book then it is likely that you will need to make a greater investment than that needed for a more handmade look.

A simple few page concertina design can be printed and folded in a very short while with not much more than a Stanley knife and a bone folder. A hardbound multi-section book may take a week and involve a sewing frame and various presses. I strongly advise that if you want to make professional looking books that have many pages that you invest in a book-makers plough and press to cut the assembled book block pages squarely to size. I ruined quite a few books in trying to do this with a knife and straight edge. I recommend www.bookbinding-supplies.co.uk who make and sell well made and reasonably priced ploughs and presses.

Commercially Printed Books

If you have a need for more than a copy or two there is clearly a problem in printing and making the books completely by hand, especially if it has a large number of pages. I have printed books through various well known on-demand printers such as Blurb but I was usually unimpressed by the quality of the printing and the considerable cost hardly made it financially viable despite their endless 40% sale offers. It is very easy to end up with a book costing £50-£100 which makes it prohibitive to sell or give away.

After some research, I had some small run (10+) books printed by an on-demand print service offered by www.mixam.co.uk and I was impressed. Their choice of styles is much more limited than, say, Blurb and there is no online software to layout the book – you must provide a pdf to a professional standard of the formatted book pages. I find that is no hardship as I can then design the book in Adobe InDesign as I want it rather than to try to adapt to a Blurb packaged style. They are exceptionally helpful in reviewing your pdf and helping you to correct any mistakes that would affect the printing. They do have a wide range of paper types, surface finishes and weights. I think that the ‘natural’ paper is particularly attractive.

Moreover, and I would hasten to mention that I have absolutely no connection with Mixam other than as a very small occasional customer, their customer service is exceptional and very helpful. But I have no doubt that if you wish you will be able to find alternative printers with similar capabilities.

Although inferior to a fine ink-jet print, in my experience the quality and consistency of their printing noticeably surpass that received from Blurb and other similar print services. Additionally, I have purchased many portfolio photography books from the likes of small digital publishers such as the sadly demised Triplekite and have often also been disappointed by the quality of the image print reproduction especially for the lower cost editions.

I suggest you purchase one or two books from Mixam with a few of your images printed on your chosen paper type. You can then experiment with your colour-proofing (you will be expected to supply images in CMYK format), image sharpening and micro-contrast parameters. Having found the image preparation settings that work best my experience is that Mixam will make very consistent and repeatable print runs – which is not always true of all on-demand printers.

The costs are remarkably good. An A4 perfect bound (glued) book in portrait format with a hundred pages and a thick softcover using the highest quality papers would be less than £10 each for a quantity of ten. Larger quantities, fewer pages and smaller sizes reduce in price accordingly. Even one could be purchased for less than £25 which is a very good way of making a proof copy before committing to a longer run.

The economical larger scale production of a well-printed book opens many opportunities. You could self-publish a book and sell it to your friends and followers through your website. You won’t need to commit yourself to a large print run and you can re-order more copies with a few days turn-around. You could become an Amazon seller with a basic account and link that to your website and social media. For inspiration just look at the delightful 55 series of little photography artists portfolio books produced by Phaidon. If you expect to sell many different books and want to look professional you can buy ten ISBN numbers for £150.

Although printing through someone like Mixam does involve some restrictions on book sizes and styles this can with some ingenuity be turned to your advantage. For instance, you could buy say ten or a hundred copies of a soft-bound book in A4 portrait format but with the pages formatted as for landscape mode, accurately cut off the spine using your book-binding plough and rebind the book landscape with an inkjet printed cover on some exotic paper with elegant Japanese stab binding. You could add some additional pages in different papers such as vellum, handmade or Awagami Japanese inkjet papers for an alternative artistic and creative effect. You could keep the book blocks as they are but just bind them into a different cover. You could make a slipcase to hold the book and perhaps include an original inkjet print. There are many possibilities depending on how much you want to differentiate with a little customisation the book from a mass-produced book into a bespoke artefact with added value.

I hope that this little article will inspire you to investigate making artists books of your photographs yourself either as one-off hand-crafted unique artefacts or self-publishing for a wider audience. If I can be of any further help you may contact me through the contact page on my website.

Morality and Realism in Photography

By Guy Tal | April 27, 2018

These may seem selfish considerations; but you can't, in sound morals, condemn a man for taking care of his own integrity. It is his clear duty. And least of all can you condemn an artist pursuing, however humbly and imperfectly, a creative aim. In that interior world where his thought and his emotions go seeking for the experience of imagined adventures, there are no policemen, no law, no pressure of circumstance or dread of opinion to keep him within bounds. ~Bertrand Russell

The topic of morality as it pertains to photographic realism (or, as it is often characterised: the ethics of “manipulation”) came up in several discussions I participated in recently. My position is that, as photographers working at this time in history, we should educate our audiences to not consider photographs by default as realistic depictions, whether we happen to aim for such realism in our own work or not.

Realism in photography should only be assumed in some contexts and when sufficient evidence for it is offered (if only a statement from the photographer to that effect).

Realism in photography should only be assumed in some contexts and when sufficient evidence for it is offered (if only a statement from the photographer to that effect). More important, I believe that we should help our audience understand that realism, as a criterion by which to evaluate photographs, is only relevant in those cases where a photograph is intended to serve an evidentiary purpose–a commemoration of the appearance of some object or scene at a point in time; and even in those cases, photographs should not be assumed by default to be truthful, even if ostensibly realistic.

There are many uses for photography in which realism is not only irrelevant but can be an unnecessary imposition and a barrier to greater appreciation of photographs as aesthetic experiences in their own right, rather than as visual records. Possessing such understanding, a knowledgeable viewer may find tremendous joy in non-representational photographs. Quoting Minor White, “The more knowledge (including technical, psychological, historical, and personal) that a viewer brings to a photograph, the richer will be his experience.”

Why I am a Tourist

By Neil McCoubrey | April 25, 2018

I am currently doing research into why photographers (and other tourists) find human constructions to be attractive focal points in remote and otherwise “natural” environments. In particular derelict structures appear to be favoured. In this article, I will position myself and my approaches to
photography relative to such locations, other photographers and the locals focusing on my experiences in Iceland.

I will start by discussing my own relationship to remote locations and their people then I look at“dereliction” and the issues around its popularity as a photographic subject.I am an urban, Western European, white male, and so I bring my associated, conditioned responses to any location I am photographing. Therefore, what I see and how I interpret it will not be neutral and will be different to that of a local.

Considering my responses, relative to Icelanders and their small communities, the greatest differences will be between my urban life experiences, with expectations of structure and comfort, versus their social and physical self-sufficiencies. I do not believe I could live in a small, remote community for any significant time as I would miss the ease of access to services and to the wider variety of people and social activities available in a large city. I think it would feel quite claustrophobic. As a consequence, I have a respect for those who can and do live in small, remote communities, whether by choice or not. They must have types of self-reliance, tenacity and stoicism to survive and even thrive, that I have never been required to develop. This probably makes me less critical in my approaches to photographing their environments.

My view is likely to be quite different to the way a resident of the area would interpret their own, vernacular landscape as described below by Yi Fu Tuan:

In our mobile society the fleeting impressions of people passing through cannot be neglected.Generally speaking, we may say that only the visitor (and particularly the tourist) has a viewpoint; his perception is often a matter of using his eyes to compose pictures. The native, by contrast, has a complex attitude derived from his immersion in the totality of his environment. The visitor’s viewpoint, being simple, is easily stated.. The complex attitude of the native, on the other hand, can be expressed by him only with difficulty. ~ Cited in Jakle, 1987, p.8

The image below is typical of the “sublime” that many photographers expect to find in Iceland.

However, and characteristic of my personal interests, I have included the functional gravel road and the snow markers to show this is not a wilderness. This is a vernacular landscape.

Romania Project Diary

By Nicholas White | April 23, 2018

I’ve always been motivated by storytelling. My fascination with photography originated from snapping away on family holidays on Dartmoor so I could relive those experiences when I returned home. As my photographic career developed, I noticed a transition away from the single image and instead, an increasing interest in the ‘series’; bodies of work with a singular theme.

Nicholas White – Romania Photography Project DiaryStrabeg, Northern Highlands

Strabeg, Northern Highlands from 'Black Dots'

Black Dots was my first major body of work since leaving the relative safety of photographic education. I found myself no longer confined to the restrictions of assessment criteria and crucially, I found myself without a deadline. I could pace myself, make photos when I wanted to make photos and when it felt right to do so. Oddly enough, I discovered that I could be more critical of my image making.

Responding to a brief, meeting deadlines, taking criticism are all crucial attributes to the working photographer. However, when it comes to building a personal body of work, this cannot be forced.

I can come home emptyhanded and not have to face the Spanish Inquisition to a room of my peers, and so I was able to apply stricter rules on myself. If the light wasn’t right, I wouldn’t shoot. If the location didn’t quite work, I’d turn around and go back again. Ultimately, I wouldn’t shoot for the sake of shooting. Not to say of course that these characteristics of being enrolled on a photography course are unnecessary. On the contrary, they’re imperative when it comes to developing your skill set and preparing oneself for the industry and working commercially.

Responding to a brief, meeting deadlines, taking criticism are all crucial attributes to the working photographer. However, when it comes to building a personal body of work, this cannot be forced. It has to, in my opinion, present itself naturally and develop organically. I attribute the successes of Black Dots to the freedoms I enjoyed whilst producing it. So in 2017, when I discovered that I’d been awarded the Royal Photographic Society Environmental Bursary to create a new series – a series that I’d been wanting to create for some time - I was concerned that pressure and expectation would impede on the quality of my work. This series of articles for On Landscape will talk through my journey as I embark on this new project in the Southern Carpathian Mountains of Romania. It will feature behind the scenes images and act as a journal of sorts; a scrapbook of ideas chronicling the ebb and flow of the creative process.

The Confident Artist

By Chris Murray | April 21, 2018

Photography is the easiest medium with which to be merely competent. Almost anybody can be competent. It's the hardest medium in which to have some sort of personal vision and to have a signature style. ~ Chuck Close

Critical in the growth of every artist is developing the confidence and courage to follow one’s own creative path. A confidence not only in our abilities but also the manner in which we practice our art. We must find the courage to lead a creative life that is often contradictory to current popular trends and practices. Together, confidence and courage enable an artist to practice their work honestly and without regard for popularity or marketability. Without this confidence and courage, we will not be able to create a unique body of work that is true to our convictions and the ways in which we see the world.

Insecurity in artists is a common affliction, even in those who have “made it”. Bouts of self-doubt are normal and it may not be possible to banish them completely. At its worst insecurity is that feeling of being a phoney, an impostor.

Bouts of self-doubt are normal and it may not be possible to banish them completely. At its worst insecurity is that feeling of being a phoney, an impostor.

Compounding matters, we are in the age of social media where it is easier than ever to compare and rank ourselves among a seemingly infinite number of other photographers. Speaking as someone who has never suffered from an abundance of self-confidence, it has been a years-long journey to believe in myself enough to practice my work with conviction. A recent experience provided a litmus test of how far I have come.

This past autumn I was one of three leaders on a photo tour in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York. The final evening found the group on the summit of a mountain to photograph the sunset, a unique opportunity since the toll road leading to the summit closes well before that time (we had been granted special permission). It is an iconic location that has been photographed countless times, including by one of the leaders of the tour, the most accomplished and well-known photographer in the region. Despite the beautiful sunset I declined to make any photos myself, content to watch the beauty unfold and be of service to the participants. I thoroughly enjoyed the evening and relished the opportunity to simply watch the splendour unfold without feeling the need to photograph it.

Later over dinner, the other leader asked if I had captured any good photos. When I told him I hadn’t even take my camera out of the bag he looked at me utterly bewildered. A rare opportunity squandered! I proceeded to list my reasons for such unusual behaviour. I explained that I avoid iconic locations, figuring there is little of myself that I can add to a place that has seen thousands of other photographers. On this particular evening I shared the summit with 20+ other photographers; was I really going to make an image substantially different from the rest? His retort was that we all see something differently, a common belief that I find truer in theory than reality.

I am not inspired by such popular locales. I find the experience of making a meaningful photograph in an ordinary location far more fulfilling. More than that, however, I strongly prefer to photograph alone. I find the presence of even one other person incredibly distracting, let alone twenty people as was the case this evening. I do my best creative work when my attention is completely focused on the subject in front of me. But, it also has to do with the ways in which I prefer to interact with nature. Having other people around spoils the experience, and I am a firm believer that meaningful experiences count more than results. I have not become a landscape photographer to simply accumulate pretty photos, I love the experience of one-on-one communion with nature and the inspiration it provides. Despite my explanation, the look of puzzlement never left his face and it was clear he was unable to understand my reasoning.

I have not become a landscape photographer to simply accumulate pretty photos, I love the experience of one-on-one communion with nature and the inspiration it provides.

As recently as a couple years ago I would have been racked with self doubt had my methods and practices been questioned by a more accomplished and respected photographer. Not anymore. Instead, my question for him, one I did not ask, was how he could find something truly novel in a place with which he was so familiar and had photographed many times before? This is not to imply that his methods are wrong, simply that our approaches are very different. In a way, my confidence was buoyed by his lack of understanding. If everyone “gets” you then most likely you’re not being true to yourself.

So what had changed for me? In my former career, I was a geologist. Growing up I was good in math and science and thought that was my path. I have no formal education in the arts and believed that I had no natural aptitude. As a photographer, I am completely self-taught, which I believe is a big reason why I have struggled with confidence. Who am I to call myself an artist? I realise of course that a formal education is not a prerequisite for becoming an artist and that many iconic photographers were and are self-taught. Nonetheless, for me, it created doubt and the feeling that I was not qualified. With time and practice, I became technically competent enough to routinely produce quality images similar to what I was seeing in the landscape photography magazines of the day. Back then it was having my work accepted by magazine editors, calendar publishers, and stock agencies that began to build my confidence. Still, over time I gradually came to the disturbing realization that while my work was good enough it was not exceptional. Worse, it was not unique. Any photographer of similar skill could have produced the same images. The majority of the photographs weren’t creative or personal. They weren’t me.

I admit to being somewhat old-fashioned in terms of my subject matter and the way I approach it. I have little interest in astrophotography or video. I will never own a drone. I prefer simpler photos that rely on creative expression rather than those that require almost herculean feats of technical wizardry. I favour subtlety and prefer quiet and intimate images to grand landscapes. I avoid iconic locations. I don’t view photography as a social endeavour and I strongly prefer to shoot alone. I am certain I am far from alone in my preferences, but still, I often feel alone in thinking this way.

A turning point in my development as a photographer was becoming a student of the medium. This is what built my confidence. I am ashamed to admit this, but for too long I trudged through photography with little or no sense of its rich history. My work suffered for it. I was technically competent, yet creatively adrift. Once I began to learn about the work and philosophies of the photographers who paved the way it was like an awakening. Much has obviously changed over the years, but the core principles of photography as an art form have not. In particular, the works of contemporary artists such as Guy Tal and Chuck Kimmerle have had a tremendous impact on my confidence. It is as if they have given me permission to pursue my work on my own terms, however different they may be. I believe anyone familiar with Guy and Chuck would agree that they are a breath of fresh air in this environment that seemingly favours technical solutions and stunning landscapes to improving one’s photography over the refinement and development of expressive skills. The answer lies within.

Creating a body of work that is original and consistent with vision or voice (or whatever you call it) is the most difficult challenge facing any photographer.

I’ve quoted Chuck Close at the head of this article because there is no more succinct and accurate description of photography. Creating a body of work that is original and consistent with vision or voice (or whatever you call it) is the most difficult challenge facing any photographer. The only way to do that is to produce honest work, work that truly is a reflection of your own sensibilities and relationship with your subject. That ability to be completely honest is derived solely from inner confidence. Confidence begets honesty because we are free from outside influences and pressures. It used to frustrate me terribly to miss photographing a stunning sunrise, regarding it as a missed opportunity to make an image that would prove popular and marketable. I realise now that such images, as beautiful as they may be, are, for me, a dime a dozen and creatively bereft. I have been there and done that. I now have the confidence and courage to seek something greater, something more personal and infinitely more rewarding. I am seeking myself.

Issue 157 PDF

By Tim Parkin | April 19, 2018

Click here to download issue 157 (high quality, 136Mb)

Click here to download issue 157 (smaller download, 81Mb)

Capture One for Landscape – Part One

By Tim Parkin & Joe Cornish | April 18, 2018

After a great deal of feedback from our readership about the Lightroom for Landscape series that myself and Joe Cornish recorded, we have since received quite a few enquiries about a similar series covering Capture One. That Capture One is a very capable editing tool is something that many people understand but it has historically had a reputation for being a bit obtuse in the way that it handles things. So it's good to hear from Joe that recent iterations of the software have not only improved usability somewhat but it is also a lot faster than it once was and has many more useful features for the creative editing of your landscape photographs.

An Introduction to Capture One

In this first episode, we will take a brief look at the way that the Capture One interface can be customised and a quick overview of the features. In future episodes, we will break down the use of each editing block and show how they are used in the editing of real world photographs.

If you have any questions about the video or general questions about Capture One, please add them in the comments below.

The Scottish Landscape Photographers Exhibition

By Tim Parkin | April 17, 2018

I was recently chatting with a photographer who has experienced the last few decades of the photographic environment in the UK and one of the topics we wandered on to was the change in galleries and approach to exhibitions in the UK. Around the last decade or two of the 20th century, there were quite a few galleries and they were rotating exhibitions on a monthly basis, or more in some cases. Fast forward to the second decade of the 21st century and the number of galleries has fallen and the number of exhibitions they are putting on has also reduced dramatically.

So it's quite possible that there are now only a 1/10th or less of the number of exhibitions than there were 20 years ago. What happens at this point is that the exhibitions that remain tend to be the 'establishment' and quite often foreign artists. There is now very little space for breaking artists or scope for experimentation and bravery by curators.

In this environment, it has now fallen to the photographers themselves to put exhibitions on. In the last few weeks, we've seen the Vision and On Your Doorstep exhibitions and quite a few more. So these days, it's fair to say, if you want to see your work exhibited, it's probably up to you and by the looks of it, many of you are.

In this vein, the Society of Scottish Landscape Photographers group organised an exhibition through Facebook and found a 'friendly' gallery to host it and some sponsors to fund it (Zeiss and Firecrest). The negative accusations against such group exhibitions are usually about the quality of curation (i.e. usually none - the work is self-selected) and of work (strictly 'amateur'. However, it is a testament to the quality of the photographers showing work (and the fact that there are so many talented 'amateurs') that the exhibition has a coherence beyond that which you might expect. Not only in the quality of imagery but also of printing and presentation. There are always going to be stand out works (just as there are in a single photographer's exhibition) and we've selected a few of these to give you an idea of what you can see if you get to the show.

I should also add that the exhibition space at the Lime Tree Gallery (inside the Lime Tree Hotel) is also very nice indeed with some very high quality and discreet lighting.

I highly recommend a visit and you're in luck in that not only is the exhibition on for another three weeks but it is also going to be exhibited elsewhere in the future. Congratulations to the organisers (especially Davie Hudson, Russell Sherwood, Fiona Mcrae and Sean Kerr) and the exhibitors and I look forward to seeing more exhibitions such as this in the future.

You can go and visit the exhibition Lime Tree Gallery in Fort William until the 5th of May.

: Scott Robertson – Moody Buachaille

: Andy MacDougall – Harris Blue

: Sean Kerr – Western Winter

: Annette Forsyth – Misty Sunrise, Loch Claire

: Russel Sherwood – All About to Change

: Nicky Goodfellow – Kilchurn Castle

: John McSporran – The Easain Mountains

Subscribers 4×4 Portfolios

By Anthony Shaughnessy, David Southern, Nicki Gwynn-Jones & Phillip William Jenner | April 17, 2018

Welcome to our 4x4 feature which is a set of four mini landscape photography portfolios submitted from our subscribers. Each portfolios consisting of four images related in some way. You can view previous 4x4 portfolios here.

Submit Your 4x4 Portfolio

We're on the lookout for new portfolios for April, so please do get in touch!

If you would like to submit your 4x4 portfolio, please visit this page for submission information.

Anthony Shaughnessy

David Southern

Close to Home ~ Thursley Common

Nicki Gwynn-Jones

The Shape of Water

Phillip William Jenner

Bolehill in the Snow

By Phillip William Jenner | April 17, 2018

The Shape of Water

By Nicki Gwynn-Jones | April 17, 2018

I took these images on a trip to Florida in January. I had injured my back during the journey to the US and was in a desperate state for a few days. Befuddled by large doses of ibuprofen and wondering whether I would ever be pain free again, I went to see The Shape of Water, Guillermo del Toro's Oscar winning film.

The dreamlike, haunting, other-worldly quality of the film suited my mood perfectly and affected me deeply, sweeping me along on a seductive tide of melancholy and making me aware of the shape of my own tears. There was no other possible title for the images. Read Nicki Gwynn-Jones Featured Photographer interview.

Close to Home ~ Thursley Common

By David Southern | April 17, 2018

South West Surrey is an area of Britain that is not always appreciated by photographers for its landscape photography opportunities. However, it does offer many rich and diverse natural environments. One such location is Thursley Common. This is one of the last remaining heathlands in Surrey and is famed for its diverse wildlife.

Regular visits to this site have enabled me to become very familiar with this location and so gain an insight as to how the time of day, weather conditions and the changing seasons combine to create the optimal conditions to capture this area at its best.

Cwm Bychan and The Heights

By Anthony Shaughnessy | April 17, 2018

In North Wales, the area east of Beddgelert is wild and rugged and little frequented compared to the honeypots of Snowdon and the Glyders. Paths are sketchy and few and the ground is like a saturated sponge most of the time.

Taking photographs of the mountains one might think the most significant features are the mountains but what's at your feet can be just as important. Many places in the bigger hills consist of uninspiring grass but Cwm Bychan and Yr Arddu ("The Heights") are rich in heather and a wonderful kind of rough red-tinted rock that outcrops all over. These create great foreground interest in a variety of lights and weathers. Although I first went there hoping to get shots of the famous peaks I've been returning several times just because of these textures and colours.

End Frame: Mendenhall Glacier, 1973 by Brett Weston

By Rupert Nicholson | April 17, 2018

Delighted to be asked to share my favourite image – well one of them anyway!

I have chosen Mendenhall Glacier, photographed by Brett Weston – b.1911 – d.1993 (whose Father was the more famous Edward Weston)

This image was photographed in 1973, and the location is in coastal, South East Alaska. The glacier is 13.6 miles long and has retreated 1.75 miles since 1929.

In 1925 Brett was taken out of school at the age of 13 and travelled with his father, from Carmel, California to Mexico, where the young Weston began to learn his trade and Art, and Brett became his father's apprentice. He was surrounded by revolutionary artists of the day including Tina Modotti, Frida Kalo and Diego Rivera.

It has been said that his introduction to Modern Art through the work of painters Rivera and Jose Clemente Orozco, greatly influenced his sense of form and composition. Van Deren Coke described him as the “child genius of American Photography”

At 17 his work was being exhibited internationally, and he exhibited a group of images in the German exhibition “Film and Foto”.

He had his first one-man exhibition in San Francisco at the age of 21. His first camera was a Graflex 3,1/4 x 4,1/4 inch, and he later used 10x8 and 14x11inch view cameras. In his latter years, physical difficulties made him choose medium format Rollei SL6x6 and Mamiya RB6X7. Over many decades he travelled extensively through the Western states of New Mexico, California, Oregon and Alaska; Also Mexico, Europe and Asia, away from his native California.

In 1945 he was awarded Guggenheim Fellowship for creative Arts, USA and Canada.

The Mendenhall Glacier image was printed by the artist onto Silver Gelatin, Glossy paper and is retailing currently, upwards of 20,000 USD for a 20X16 Inch print, and around 10,000 USD for a print size 7,5/8 x 8,7/8 inches. Incidentally, the young Edward Weston persuaded his established father to change printing his work on Platinum papers and use Silver Halide Glossy papers, with richer tones. Edward Weston acknowledged that he was influenced by his son Brett with his own Photography.

This image would have been photographed on a large plate view camera (probably a 10x8 inch format) and most likely would not have been cropped as was the ethos of the f64 group of “Modernist” photographers, who Brett Weston was invited to exhibit alongside with the original core of f64 Photographers.

It would appear that this photograph was exposed on a bright sunny, cloudless day, with no wind, leaving the glacial water like a mirror.

The composition is typically abstract, with strong bold shapes of Black tones from the land mass in front of the glacier, the foreground water, and the sky. I think a Red filter may well have been utilised to enhance these very dark and rich tones.

Contrasting with the strong shapes of dark tone is the light toned glacier to the top of the picture and smaller pieces of broken/thawed glacier blocks in the foreground.

The image area has a similar amount of “Positive” and “Negative” shapes (Undetailed Blacks versus Light tones of glistening Ice) The Style of Brett Weston’s compositions often gave the viewer a flat depth two-dimensional appearance as opposed to a three-dimensional appearance, aiding his abstract trademark.

We all perceive other photographer’s images with our own interpretation, and for myself, this image is not easily viewed. I find that I look at the bold Black land mass and the glacier as one point of interest, and then look at the foreground broken ice pieces in a Sea of darkness. It is like looking at two images within one frame. However, I can return to the image and view it as a complete diagonal, zig-zag compositional flow.

I remember the first time I viewed this picture, in 1978, when I bought the book “Voyage of the Eye” for £6.00.(Brett Weston has said there are much better quality books of his work) I remember looking at it and wondering what is it? Only when I viewed the title, did I connect with the composition content! This was long before we all visited Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon. Glacial landscape familiarisation for this young Photography student was not the case, especially since I didn’t practice Landscape work until decades later.

I still enjoy this image now, as much as I did in 1978. I like pictures that need scrutinising and searching, pictures that are strong in shape and form, pictures that I can see differently each time I view them. The abstract aesthetics hold my attention, and there is no ambiguity in the content of this picture. My enjoyment and appreciation for Monochrome landscapes and this image belongs to the knowledge that we do not view in Monochrome, and as such, in my opinion, there is greater scope than Colour for artistic interpretation, expression and representation.

monovisions.com is a good source for viewing Brett Weston’s close up abstract imagery of subjects including Plant leaves, knotted roots and tangled kelp.

Scottish Landscape Photographer of the Year

By Charlotte Parkin | April 14, 2018

Grimsby-born photographer Paul Webster, has been announced as this year’s winner of the prestigious Scottish Landscape Photographer of the Year Award.

Cromdale-based Webster beat off strong competition from thousands of entries submitted by photographers from across the globe to win the prestigious title. His winning portfolio comprised of 3 magnificently evocative images shot in the mountain ranges of the Lochaber Geopark and Glen Affric with his Fujifilm digital camera. They included ‘Dreams and Nightmares’, a shot of light breaking through to light up Aonach Eagach whilst two ravens circled overhead; ‘The Mamores’, capturing the mists shifting past Sgor nam Fiannaidh, above Glen Coe; and ‘Wild Affric’, a tranquil shot of the landscape and the magnificent Caledonian pines that surround Loch Affric, dusted by the first snows of the winter.

Paul Webster - Winner

‘Wild Affric’, also received one of 10 Awards, sponsored by the John Muir Trust, which owns and manages many of Scotland’s wild places.

Paul Webster

Paul said: “When I got the telephone call, I was honestly just astonished to be told I'd won. There are so many landscape photographers I really admire that enter this competition, and to have come out on top is just unbelievable - I'm thrilled.”

Webster, 43, is no stranger to the Highlands having moved to Scotland 11 years ago with his wife Helen, where they set up the hugely popular ‘Walkhighlands' website. It was Paul’s love of Scotland's landscapes that came first, later leading to his interest in photography to enable him to share with others, and he has since written 14 guidebooks on walking.

Jeanie Lazenby - Landscape Winner

The competition, now in its fourth year, is the brainchild of Perthshire based landscape photographer, Stuart Low who put it together to promote and inspire photographers of all levels to explore Scotland’s stunning landscapes and to promote Scotland’s natural, cultural and historic heritage to an international audience. Winning entries will be published in a series of public exhibitions across Scotland and in a special edition book that will be launched on 27th March 2018.

Nigel Morton - Scottish Weather Winner

The competition does a lot of good too. The images that the photographers capture of our iconic, and even unseen places, promote tourism and the book that showcases the winning images adds to that. Acting as a brochure for Scotland’s amazing places, it inspires visitors to follow in the footsteps of the photographers so they can experience the views for themselves. Even the exhibitions play their part, boosting numbers to galleries, small cafes and bookshops for example. Find out more at www.slpoty.co.uk

Book

The Scottish Landscape Photographer of the Year – Collection 4 by Breeze Media. £27. ISBN: 978-0-9935413-3-9 On sale at http://slpoty.com/SLPOTY-Collection4-hardback

An exhibition of the competition winners will open at the Ocean Terminal, Edinburgh (TBC) in June 2018, in association with the Image Collective.

Here is a selection of the winners from this year's competition

: Paul Webster – Overall Winner

: Paul Webster

: Paul Webster

: Jeanie Lazenby – Landscape Winner

: Alex Nail

: Nigel Morton – Weather Winner

: Jeanie Lazenby

: Martin Steele

: Michael Stirling-Aird

Rob Knight

By Rob Knight & Michéla Griffith | April 12, 2018

Many of us know Rob as one half of the duo (take a bow, Karen) behind the Connected Exhibitions that are held each Spring at Patchings Art Centre near Nottingham. A lot of his time and energy goes into this but he is passionate about many other aspects of photography, as you will soon learn.

Can you tell readers a little about yourself – your education, early interests and career?

As a child, I’d always had a love of the outdoors, not necessarily photography, and would love to spend time with family and friends exploring the Peak District - close to where we lived - and the coast. The coast was always massively inspirational and important to me, being somewhere I spent a lot of time with my grandparents especially, immersing myself in the atmosphere, sights, sounds, smells and emotion of this special place.

I grew up in the industrial midlands of the 1970s, hailing from the Nottingham / Derby borders; the sights and sounds of urban and industrial areas have helped shape who I am personally and creatively, and were also instrumental in me asking questions about the why’s and wherefores of human interaction with and impact on our landscape/environment.

This led on to my passion through school for Geography and ultimately to me becoming a Geographer by education through University.

In my younger years I always had some degree of interest in photography and have owned numerous small point and shoot film cameras although I can’t say as many do ‘my first introduction to photography was with my father’s / grandfather’s box brownie’ as it wasn’t, although I do remember my Grandad having an old box brownie in the spare room that I used to be fascinated with the textures on and played with as small child.

My Dad gave me my two first ‘serious’ cameras; an Olympus Trip 35 which I still have and use today with black and white film, and the Praktica BX20 kit he bought for holidays to Spain. I think during my college / Uni years I used these much less and the BX20 was sold at a car boot although I have bought pretty much the same kit about 10 years ago.

From Flat Ground

By Tony Gaskins | April 11, 2018

A life time’s love for photography grew into a passion for making landscape images about 20 years ago. I travelled along pathway familiar to many of us. One of my goals was to hone my vision and style. I loved to be outdoors and especially in the mountains; it was only natural, therefore, that my photography began to express my love of upland environments. All was well until a few years ago when, occasional episodes of immobility, neck, chest and lower back pain became frequent. Medical examinations revealed a problem affecting my spine including discs and nerves.

About 2 years after the diagnosis I was struggling to walk very far and couldn't carry my heavy camera backpack containing either my beloved Ebony 5x4 camera with a variety of Schneider and Rodenstock lenses or my Nikon DSLRs, zoom and prime lenses, flashgun, filters and other ‘essential kit’ weighing in at over 18kg. It was becoming painfully obvious that my time in the mountains of mountains and wilderness was coming. to an end.

Unfortunately the degeneration of my spine continues with eight discs now prolapsed and arthritis affecting several joints including my feet, hands and shoulders. I was diagnosed in my 40s and I'm now in my 50s. All my doctors tell me I'm very young to be affected this badly and although I need a new right shoulder I'm too young to have one. I'm affected everyday by neck, shoulder, arm, lower back, leg and feet pain. I was spending less and less time outdoors and had fleeting trips to upland environments ended in disappointment and frustration.

I had a difficult conversation with my doctor who suggested I should give up photography (and he hadn't even seen my work!)

Around August 2013 I had a difficult conversation with my doctor who advised that my camera bag was far too heavy and its weight was exacerbating my spinal pain each time I carried it. He suggested I should give up photography (and he hadn't even seen my work!). Shooting portraits in a studio or still life etc didn’t really appeal to me.

If I'm being honest I began to feel sorry for myself and became resentful. I was turning my back on photography, but paradoxically continued to enjoy looking at other photographers' images and had vicarious enjoyment of the mountains and wilderness through their work. Although, they'll never realise it, Joe Cornish's, Colin Prior's, Greg Whitton's and other's work continued to inspire me and keep my love of photography alive until I could accept that I had choices. I could have continued to wallow in self-pity or explore my photographic options.

I live in Lincolnshire and, although it seems uninspiring, if you concentrate there are numerous photographic opportunities, the obvious one being the wonderful coastline. It seemed to me that I could redefine myself as a photographer and explore the alien landscape of fens, coast and gentle rolling hills. It was time to form a relationship my own was my back yard,.

The next step was to accept my physical limitations and begin to explore photographic opportunities from flat ground

Thinking about my options, my first decision was to say goodbye to my beloved Ebony 5x4 camera and associated kit, part with my Nikon DSLRs and downsize. I chose the Fuji CSC system and now have a Fuji XT1, 14mm, 18-55 and 55-200 zooms, Lee Seven5 ND grads and stoppers which all fits in a Think Tank Change Up V2 waist bag which can be supported by chest straps. These changes have allowed me to carry my kit for longer periods and because it's not so painful I can concentrate on making images and not being pain when I arrive at my chosen location. The next step was to accept my physical limitations and begin to explore photographic opportunities from flat ground. Over the last 3 years that's what I've done, concentrate on accessible flat ground, often no more than half a mile from a car park. My vision and style have changed; changes that I wouldn't have considered before.

Having come to terms with my limitations I've begun to enjoy the coast far more than upland environments and I've regained my love of photography. OK, my legs give way without warning and I've fallen downstairs at home more times than I care to remember until it finally sunk in that I must hold on with at least one had when using stairs and I have to take precautions when I'm out and about. There's been one incident resulting in a fractured left wrist and 3 ribs a few years ago when my leg gave way exiting a bird watching hide, so I don't go off the beaten track if I'm out on my own, but I continue to go out to make images and from time to time venture near to the edge of sea cliffs if I think the shot's worth doing, I just don't go too close to the edge.

I find that being on the coast and concentrating on making images brings solace and give me the thrill and peace that mountains once did.
My approach is now to hone the composition and reduce it to a few key elements within the frame, juxtaposing colours, light, fore, middle and background elements to create the image. In other words stop, consider and execute the idea that formed in my mind’s eye. I make sure no unwanted elements remain in the frame and that the idea and narrative for the picture are clear (at least to me). This helps me to produce a cohesive image that communicates some of the emotions I feel when in wonderful locations and, I hope, captures something of the spirit of the place.

: From Flat Ground, Tony Gaskins, read article

Plitvice Lakes

By Ellen Bowness | April 8, 2018

If, like me, you've got a penchant for photographing waterfalls, Plitvice Lakes National Park in Croatia is pretty much paradise. With 16 crystal clear lakes, lush mixed woodland and more waterfalls than you can count it's got a lot to offer.

It's been on my "I'd really like to go there" list for a long time, so at the end of May, I finally visited on a three day trip. And it didn't disappoint.

The forecast for Day 1 was, unfortunately, torrential rain... not ideal, even though I had packed a brolly and some duct tape to attach it to my tripod, just in case. Thankfully the gods of photography were smiling on me, and it dried up completely by the time I set out to explore the Upper Lakes, giving perfect overcast conditions all day.

The Upper Lakes area really caught my imagination – twisting boardwalks over gurgling rivers, waterfalls cascading out of the surrounding hills and fabulous blue pools edged by rushes and vibrant vegetation. Every time you turned a corner there was another astonishing scene to take in. In fact, there was so much potential is was tricky to decide where to start. I was like a kid in a candy shop and happily whiled away a few hours meandering through the area.

On Day 2 it was time to venture into the Lower Lakes area, which has a very different feel. The series of lakes and cascades are hemmed into a canyon with larger, but somehow less photogenic, waterfalls at the bottom. I spent some time at the obligatory "postcard" viewpoint (when in Rome it's hard to resist), but I got far more satisfaction from a path along the top of the canyon. From here you could look down onto the boardwalks as they wound their way across the lakes. The Sun was shining today, which really brought out the azure blue colour in the water.

For the last day, I couldn't help returning to the Upper Lakes, but with the sun blazing overhead, I had real problems with contrast. It's not often that you're annoyed when it's sunny on holiday, but thankfully I did stumble upon one of my favourite scenes that I hadn't even noticed the first time around.

Although it only gets about 1½ million visitors a year, which is small potatoes compared to many other national parks in the world, it did sometimes feel like at least half of them were in the composition I was trying to shoot! The selfie-stick brigade and coach parties are a common obstacle here, but with a little patience, it wasn't unmanageable. And certainly fairly avoidable if you're willing to get up earlier than I am when on holiday.

The biggest challenge, however, was tripod vibrations. With a lot of the path being boardwalks there's little solid ground to place one on, and every footstep from a passing visitor would wobble the whole section. No amount of careful positioning helped and I certainly did a moderate amount of (silent) cursing at the more flat footed sightseers. The space in which to set up on the boardwalks without blocking the gangway was also pretty tight – they're only about 5 feet wide. If there was a prize for how close together you can have the tripod legs while still standing upright, I feel like I'd have stood a chance of winning.

But even the challenges didn't detract from being in one of the most beautiful national parks I've ever visited. It really is a waterfall wonderland and I'd highly recommend visiting this wonderful part of this delightful country.

For a short guide covering the practicalities of visiting the park and the location of my favourite areas please visit my website.

Art Wolfe Interview

By Graeme Green | April 5, 2018

“The new spin is always the challenge,” says American photographer Art Wolfe. One of the world’s most famous photographers, renowned for his colourful and creative pictures of landscapes, wildlife and disappearing cultures, Wolfe has been finding new spins for 40 years in countries as diverse as China, Ethiopia and the USA. As well as producing dozens of books, including latest Earth Is My Witness, he’s famous for his TV programmes, including Travels From The Edge and Netflix series Tales By Light. Graeme Green caught up with him to hear about revisiting landscapes to find fresh angles, never being satisfied, and how photography can help protect the environment….

Art Wolfe, Jökulsárlón, Iceland

What makes a great landscape photo stand out to you?

I’m always looking for something unique or something new that I’ve not seen before, or maybe a great shot of an old subject in new light.

I’ve been doing this for more than 40 years. I’ve got a great memory for photographs, so I’m always looking for something unique or something new that I’ve not seen before, or maybe a great shot of an old subject in new light.

If I have a perception that somebody’s just putting their tripods in the holes of previous photographers, that is obviously a mark against my interest. If it’s unusual light, if it’s something new, then I’m very intrigued.

You must be bombarded with photographers’ work. Are you hard to impress?

I critique all the time and I’m a product of a major art school at the University of Washington, so even in my late teens and early 20s, I went through the critiquing process and learned how to critique properly.

Seven Color Mountain, Bolivia

There’s always something positive to be said about any photo or any painting. I build on that and then ease into the critique so that the person being reviewed isn’t devastated. If you start off saying something negative, that’s all they hear. I don’t want to say that I’m a pussycat, because I’ll get to the point eventually, but I don’t want to destroy somebody like I’ve seen other critiquers do.

But, yes, I’m kind of tough. I’m tough on myself, and I don’t want to reward people for copying what someone else has done, just with better equipment.

Bungle Bungle Range, Australia

You often return to the same location repeatedly to find new angles. What do you look for when you go back to a place you’ve photographed before?

What’s interesting is that when I return to a place, the likelihood is that I’ve evolved - not the landscape but my intellect.

What’s interesting is that when I return to a place, the likelihood is that I’ve evolved - not the landscape but my intellect. As you keep staying at it, the more you can look with new eyes at an old subject, finding new styles, new perspectives. You’re always bringing something new to a place you’ve been to. I think that’s a great and worthy challenge.

Right above Seattle, we have a beautiful park called Mount Rainier National Park. I’ve been up there hundreds of times and yet every time I go up there, I’m enthusiastic and I find a new perspective, not just of the mountain but the environments around it.

Creation vs. Production

By Rafael Rojas | April 4, 2018

"I am asked with surprising frequency, "How do you know where to make pictures?". To the extent there is a rule, the answer is that it is usually where you stop long enough"

- Robert Adams

A few days ago I received a really pleasing email from a participant of one of our photo-immersion workshops. The email came with a personal and unsolicited review of the two experiences he recently had with us, exactly when I was to start writing this article about the implications of creation and its opposition to the concept of production. What I read there came to me as a perfect example of what I intended to elaborate on this article, and filled me with joy and gratitude to this fellow photographer.

Snowflake - Finland

For this reason, I decided to start the article with this spontaneous reflection, even at the risk that some of the readers might mistake it for a sneaky act of self-promotion, which is absolutely not. On this message, that I copy literally, I have highlighted some of the words in bold, since they are related to aspects I will cover throughout this article:

"I still miss the days spent in Finland and Norway. The places we went to were absolutely spectacular, but what strikes me most is the style of your photo trips, which deeply changed my philosophy and style of travel and photography. I used to make precise travel plans, go to iconic locations one after another for sunrises and sunsets, and try to maximize the places to visit in limited travel time. But now I find your photo-immersion trips truly a better way to get more personal photos and train one's "photographer's vision". For instance, after reviewing the photos taken during the Finland trip, I surprisingly found that more than half of my favourite photos were taken not in Risiitunturi, but the random places we visited along country roads, the trees, the houses... I would definitely skip and miss them if I did not come with you. And these places, which did not look very photographically promising at first glance, were challenging to get satisfactory photos from, and really forced one to sharpen his photography skills. Of course, the whole process has been quite fun! It was so interesting to see how we came back with very different photos from the same places."

These lines, which indeed reflect my own way of approaching photography (and any creative endeavour, in fact) contrast sharply with something else I recently read in the newsletter of a known landscape photographer, that vented the secret for great landscape photography as the three P's: Planning, Persistence, and Patience. In my opinion, this set of P's leads to a fourth one, the end result such an approach typically leads to Production. I know this because, me too, I used to follow this same approach in the early stages of my photographic career.

Issue 156 PDF

By Tim Parkin | April 3, 2018

Click here to download issue 156 (high quality, 127Mb)

Click here to download issue 156 (smaller download, 68Mb)

End Frame: “Calm, San Gimignano, Tuscany” by Charlie Waite

By Phil Brown | April 2, 2018

I was reading a photographic article the other day that made me laugh - not that it was a funny article, because it wasn’t, but the premise was very much grounded in the current zeitgeist The author of the piece was bemoaning that a certain up-and-coming photographer seemed obsessed with using square format for his images, as if to replicate Instagram and there derive a following amongst his selected audience. It may well be that the photographer in question wished to encompass the square format into his ‘style’ and that he may have wanted to create an association between his vision and that of the users of the aforementioned application. I don’t know, but what I do know is that whilst I might have been laughing at the seeming lack of historical photographic knowledge in the article, I was also acknowledging my age, as I remember clearly my early experiments with an ancient square format camera!

A few days later I was contacted by Charlotte Britton, who enquired if I would be interested in writing a piece for the End Frame section of On Landscape. At first, I thought I would be the last person to write about a favourite photograph, but as a few days went past I recalled my reaction to reading the critic’s view. I realized that here was my chance to write about the origination of the square format, whilst explaining why I believe it still resonates with the British landscape photography community.'

In 1900, Kodak introduced the 117 file type for their first Brownie camera, the No.1 Brownie, designed as a 6×6 cm format. Until then there had been a series of different formats, but Kodak saw this particular format as being ideal for the amateur photographer. The coming years saw many developments and other formats came and went, but still, the equal-sided frame refused to go away; it resisted being consigned to the confines of museum store rooms. However, it does appear, at first glance, not best suited to the landscape photographic genre.

Charlie had got the commission to illustrate this particular guidebook, and I was mesmerized by his photographic accomplishments using a tried and trusted square format Hasselblad.

I remember my mother and father buying me my first ‘real’ camera, a Kodak Brownie 44A, which was a square format camera taking 127 film. I was happy taking photographs with this and eventually hoped I would be able to buy a professional camera such as a Hasselblad or Rolleiflex. In the event with the pocket money I was on, I could only manage to purchase an Adox, that accepted 135 (35mm) film. However many happy hours were spent clicking away with reversal film; I didn’t know such technical limitations as the restricted dynamic range of slide films, nor was I particularly worried about looking at the slides through a projector (the expense of all that equipment, for goodness sake!). I remember well the day I bought a Minolta SRT 101b with my first paycheck, and again enjoyed many excursions with this camera but eventually, life got in the way, and I put the camera in the proverbial attic. [

That is until the day I stumbled across a George Philip guide to Tuscany, one of a series of guides written by various notable travel writers, in this instance Jonathan Keates, accompanied with photographs by two then up-and-coming but now well-known photographers, a certain Joe Cornish and a person with a theatrical background, Charlie Waite. Charlie had got the commission to illustrate this particular guidebook, and I was mesmerized by his photographic accomplishments using a tried and trusted square format Hasselblad. His abilities encompassed far more than just landscape shots, which no doubt his brief demanded, but it was by far those landscape images that struck home with me.

Two years later, Charlie released a seminal book (as far as I am concerned!), ‘The making of Landscape Photographs’ in which, page after page, he demonstrated his utmost skill in making the most exquisite and sublime images with his Hasselblad. And one image, in particular, stood out to me: ‘Calm, San Gimignano, Tuscany’.

Even today, after all these years, the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end when I look at this photograph. At the time I first set eyes on the image, I hadn’t been any further than the odd trip across the channel to France, so the world Charlie had created in this photograph was, whilst not exactly exotic, certainly seemingly out of reach to a relatively young and impoverished snapper. I have since visited San Gimignano on many occasions, both with and without the sprawling mass of tourists, but every time I look at Charlie’s image, it still evokes a sense of being there, on that calm autumn day as the leaves just begin to turn, smelling the wood smoke as it drifts across the valley and with the sun trying to make an appearance.

There is nothing dramatic about the photograph, no heavy clouds, no wind rippling across the vineyards, no raining pelting down. Equally, there is no frantic activity to catch the eye, no mechanical intrusions to one’s inner peace. Yes, we know an aeroplane has flown overhead, but the noise has diminished, leaving only the vapour trail hanging listlessly in the firmament.

Every time I look at Charlie’s image, it still evokes a sense of being there, on that calm autumn day as the leaves just begin to turn, smelling the wood smoke as it drifts across the valley and with the sun trying to make an appearance.

Yet we are also made aware that this is a working landscape; the fields are ploughed by the deep Tuscan mainshares that produce those characteristic furrows, the vines are planted regularly in rows, held up by concrete posts and wire. Indeed the smoke, whilst invoking stillness, suggests land management whilst also alluding to some pagan sacrificial rite.

Charlie is very self-critical of his work. In his notes regarding this photograph he mentions that he had to slightly compromise on his framing in order to exclude a red oil drum from the image; he had hoped for a more symmetrical view. However, I feel this slight asymmetry actually adds to the sense of depth and highlights the slope down to the valley in front of the escarpment that San Gimignano sits on.

There are of course other photographers that have employed the square format to their advantage, not least Fay Godwin, but somehow in this photograph, Charlie has demonstrated that using lines of perspective and tonal graduation, a sense of scale and depth can be achieved. By capturing this image on the day in question he has had no need to use extreme techniques or dramatic weather to engender a sense of being there, of experiencing the moment.

So here we have it, a photograph taken with a standard lens in a square format. It is not dramatic; the colours are not oversaturated. Indeed, it is a world away from the current perceived requirements of a landscape photograph, which tend to use both techniques together with extreme wide-angle lenses. It exudes serenity, at one with the world; in fact, it is the epitome of mindfulness.

I could have chosen a number of Charlie Waite’s square format photographs for an End Frame, but ultimately this image had to be the one, as for me it exemplifies the art of the consummate landscape photographer.

Do you have an image that you'd like to write about in our End Frame feature? We're looking for articles for our forthcoming issues, so please do get in touch!

Subscribers 4×4 Portfolios

By Jason Geeves, Juan Ramón Suarez, Paul Gotts & Paul Radford | April 2, 2018

Submit Your 4x4 Portfolio

We're on the lookout for new portfolios for April, so please do get in touch!

If you would like to submit your 4x4 portfolio, please visit this page for submission information.

Jason Geeves

The Lake District

Juan Ramón Suarez

Sounds of Galicians Water

Paul Gotts

A Series of Solargraphs

Paul Radford

Dead Trees

By Paul Radford | April 2, 2018

I've always been a fan of Black & White photography. I feel it requires a completely different mindset to colour. You need to look at not just light & shade but textures also. For me, trees are an ideal subject for this, especially dead ones.

The way light is captured by the distorted shapes and textures of the wood can create images in the mind and stimulates the imagination.

All of these images were taken on walks around where I live and also on the Isle of Wight.

A Series of Solargraphs

By Paul Gotts | April 2, 2018

The images were made over the April to September period in 2017 during which these exposures covered between 15 to 140 days. It was not easy leaving the cameras alone for so long a period and I visited them many times when out pushing the buggy to check they were still in situ over the course of the summer. They all ended up weather beaten, occasionally damp inside so not only ended up showing some of the path of the sun but also a distressed look I became quite attached to.

The images cover two local sites which I visit quite often. The first, St Luke's Churchyard in Crosby, Liverpool covers a large plot of land and requires much grounds maintenance. The oldest graves are around 150 years old, with most of their inscriptions well into a weathering process. The final two images were taken a couple of miles further north in Woodham Knoll, a small wood currently used for pheasant breeding. A large part of the wood comprises six or seven stretches of water which I think are former watering holes. The penultimate peaceful photograph faces south over arable land and looks towards Liverpool. The final image taken by the side of one of the pools looking towards the margin of the wood shows the effect of local storm damage and a reflected part of the sun's path.

The final part of this little project was to take advantage of a bookmaking workshop from Joseph Wright that I attended in November. I have really enjoyed printing out more photographs in the last year and the experience of sequencing and binding them up as books have been incredibly rewarding.

Sounds of Galicians Water

By Juan Ramón Suarez | April 2, 2018

Galicia is one of the wettest regions of Spain. Its territory is formed by hundreds of small rivers that flows towards the Atlantic Ocean, forming small waterfalls in its path. It is not only a gift for the eyes of fans of landscape and nature photography, it is also a gift for our ears and our mind that relaxes with the sounds of Galician´s water.

The Lake District

By Jason Geeves | April 2, 2018

My chosen shots are all from my favourite place in the UK - the Lake District. Although this is nothing new I like to try to use aerial photography to try to give a unique take on locations that have been photographed and documented many times before.

Although drone photography can often be dismissed as a novelty it is certainly now at the point where the quality of shots are working as a direct extension of your regular SLR, and that's why I enjoy it so much I think.

Of Wood and Water

By Michéla Griffith | April 1, 2018

At The Joe Cornish Galleries, Northallerton
Saturday 14 April to Tuesday 22 May 2018

Preview Saturday 14 April from 1pm; Artist’s Talk and Q & A hosted by Tim Parkin 2-3pm (book your tickets here).

Little did I imagine on reading (and re-reading) my copy of “First Light” in the ‘noughties’ that the time would come when I was invited to show my own images at the gallery bearing Joe Cornish’s name. I was fortunate to meeting someone in 2013 (thank you Andrea) who suggested I get in touch with curator Jo Rose. I nearly didn’t – I wasn’t sure that my abstracts of water and light from the Peak District would be ‘right’ – but after a phone chat I travelled up to show Jo my prints and returned with an offer of a solo exhibition which became “Moments of Confluence: A River’s Song” in 2015. I’ve now been invited back for a second ‘solo’ to show a new collection of images under the title “Of Wood and Water”.

This prompts me to consider how my photography was both inspired by ‘First Light’, and has changed since. And how the images of water that were exhibited in June 2015 continue to inform what I do and have led to “Of Wood and Water”.

We are often inspired to reproduce the images that we see and this is a natural starting point for us all. However creativity is about the process as much as any product – the ideas sparked, the train of thought, the exploration and, yes, the failures – so while replication may help you learn the craft, it is unlikely to help you develop personally.

When we moved to the Peak District in 2007 rather than have to travel in search of a ‘fix’ on days off or wait for holidays, I could simply walk from the door which gave me the opportunity to get to know an area really well, and to keep going back. For the first 4 years I did the fairly obvious things – climbed the hills, tried to compress wide views into photo format, found the smaller landscapes within and enjoyed the exclusivity of the ends of the day and, when it came, the golden hour. I was very happy doing this.

By early 2011 I had developed some unexpected constraints of my own – fatigue plagued me, and so I went out less often, with less gear, and the hills and dawns were left behind. But in summer 2012 I found something in a mundane corner that intrigued me and I will be forever grateful that this happened. My image making changed dramatically when I paused by my local river, the Dove. The few images that I made that day were unremarkable but were enough to draw me back and I began to experiment with shutter speed. I quickly settled on using a square format and isolating – abstracting – the water from the land. It became addictive. I little knew where it would lead. Once you stop, once you scratch a little and get under the surface, you realise that there are so many more possibilities than you could have imagined. Photography can sometimes seem to give us too many choices, and by removing some of these we have to be more resourceful to find a satisfactory solution. Creative skills require practice. Even small areas are seldom exhausted – only our imagination. Returning to an area helps us get beyond the obvious and find our own personal landscapes.

Since showing this first collection of work at the Joe Cornish Galleries in 2015 I have continued my dialogue with the Dove, exploring its many faces and moods. Inevitably the trees along the river bank, reflected in the water, are a part of the images and of my experimentation. The changes that the river has brought about in my photography have carried over into my exploration of woodland and my interrogation of individual trees on land, and late last year I decided to draw these together for a new portfolio book.

These personal interpretations of wood and water, made over the past 3 years, form the basis for the images selected for display at The Joe Cornish Galleries. They reflect not only the seasons as experienced near my home in the Peak District and during visits to North Yorkshire, but the curiosity that water has inspired in my practice. Water has fundamentally changed my way of seeing and my camera is now simply a tool that lends itself to creative interpretations. I rarely make ‘static’ images these days – if my subject matter is not moving, I will move myself or use other techniques to deconstruct the literal and reimagine the subjective. The changes in my photography – from record to interpretation and impression – now also extend to the way in which I process my image files and I’m looking forward to developing further a new series of abstracts that take me closer still to the water and light that started it all.

Further Information

“Of Wood and Water: Photographs by Michela Griffith” opens on Saturday 14 April with a preview starting at 1pm. There will be an artist’s talk and question and answer session hosted by Tim Parkin between 2pm and 3pm. Tickets for the talk and Q&A are available from the gallery.
The exhibition continues until Tuesday 22 May and is at the Joe Cornish Galleries, Register House, Zetland Street, Northallerton North Yorkshire, DL6 1NA.
The Gallery has a number of events planned for Saturday 14 July: as well as Michela’s exhibition launch, the gallery courtyard will re-open for 2018 with an outdoor exhibition by photographer Tessa Bunney of cut flower images printed on Chromaluxe panels for outdoor display. The images are from “FarmerFlorist”, an ongoing project about the local ‘artisan’ cut flower farms which have recently sprung up in the UK.
You can also see Michela’s images in print on display within the Peak District during Derbyshire Open Arts 25 May to 3 June and at the Great Dome Art Fair in Buxton 13 to 15 July (further details here).

The Design of the Book

Accordion or Concertina Book

Stab-Binding

Single Section Bindings

Multi-section Bindings

Book Materials

Sequencing your images

Page Layout and Design

Printing and Assembly

Commercially Printed Books

An Introduction to Capture One

Submit Your 4x4 Portfolio

Anthony Shaughnessy

David Southern

Close to Home ~ Thursley Common

Nicki Gwynn-Jones

The Shape of Water

Phillip William Jenner

Bolehill in the Snow

Book

Submit Your 4x4 Portfolio

Jason Geeves

The Lake District

Juan Ramón Suarez

Sounds of Galicians Water

Paul Gotts

A Series of Solargraphs

Paul Radford

Dead Trees

At The Joe Cornish Galleries, Northallerton Saturday 14 April to Tuesday 22 May 2018

Further Information

Inside this issue

At The Joe Cornish Galleries, Northallerton
Saturday 14 April to Tuesday 22 May 2018