End frame: Copper Beech, Stourhead, Wiltshire by Fay Godwin

Steve Gray

Steve Gray is a landscape photographer who spends most of his time exploring his local Herefordshire landscape. Sometimes he wanders further afield too.

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I admire many different approaches when it comes to photographing the landscape. The opportunities for contrasting, opposite and very personal interpretations of the subject matter are endless. Of all photographic genres, perhaps landscape is the broadest and most diverse.

My own inspiration to pursue the vast majority of my photography outdoors in the countryside has come from admiring the work of too many talented photographers and artists to mention. Over the years I have inevitably (and mostly sub-consciously) adopted aspects of their approaches that appealed and combined them in the pursuit of making images that best represent my own feelings towards the landscapes and places I know best and regularly return to.

All of this makes selecting a favourite image for end frame quite challenging. I found it extremely hard knowing where to start with so many positive influences to choose from. However, Fay Godwin’s ‘Copper Beech’ image from the National Trust estate at Stourhead in Wiltshire felt, in the end, like a natural choice. Compared to my exposure to the work of other photographers (who, as it happened, most often worked in colour), I was late in discovering and coming to hugely admire Fay Godwin’s images.