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Richard Fox
I developed my passion for landscape photography, some years ago now, in Devon, primarily on Dartmoor, trying to find time away from my full-time job as a veterinary surgeon. I have since developed the traveling bug, gone part-time and spend more of my time traveling and capturing landscapes. My wife and I have now moved to Stirlingshire in Scotland where we are enjoying exploring this fabulous country.
I was approached by ‘On Landscape’ to contribute to this month’s end frame. As I understand it, the photographer has an almost impossible task of choosing their one favourite image and then write about their reasons why. I think from my point of view, and only having been a keen landscape photographer since 2012, I was rather daunted by this opportunity.
Rather than spend a long time brainstorming accomplished photographers, whose work I know well or even those I know less well, or well-known images others have perceived as exemplary, I decided to choose an image from a photographer that inspired me to pursue landscape photography (even with its immense highs and also repeated disappointments).
The photographer that set me on this road the most is Alex Nail. I guess I feel somewhat akin to Alex in the sense that I also started capturing landscapes on Dartmoor. I remember one of his first ‘constructive’ criticisms on one of my images was ‘your horizon is wonky’. That was it. He’s never been afraid to speak his mind and through the years it has been both beneficial but also sometimes hard to swallow. However, I have admired his work for many years and after leaving Dartmoor, to pursue a professional career, taking him to far flung places, we have kept in touch.
I have recently moved from Dartmoor to Scotland, partly for lifestyle reasons, but also the draw of the Scottish landscape. I have to say this is partly due to Alex’s photographic influence. Having visited Scotland many times over the years, and now being a resident, I have started to see for myself its unique charm and splendour. Dartmoor, for me, really came alive, with saturated, striking early and late light or layered mists and fog, perhaps the odd rainbow. However, the grandeur of the Scottish landscape, it’s peaks, troughs, lochs, tundra and rocks means that it has its own unique sense of drama, even in flat or diffused light or in dreich conditions.