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Lewis Phillips

A cultural and environmental photographer with conservation in mind all the time. Re ignited with passion since moving back to film and shooting large format.

lewisjamesphillips.com

After a year immersed in a personal project photographing the UK’s temperate rain forest, Lewis James Phillips reflects on a journey from the southwest of England to the western highlands of Scotland aiming to find Britain's lost forests.

Photography is the reason I find myself where I am today; The passion of documenting what I find inspiring to show others has always been my intention.

But it has not always been for those reasons that I find myself documenting my interests. Long gone are the days running around the countryside capturing the iconic landscape subjects well known, or the portraits of wildlife that I now class run of the mill. Instead, I need to have a purpose. The technical side of using my mind's eye must be tested and what about the craft that was so infectious for me and that made me want to learn in the first place (now lost in today's digital era where turnarounds must be instant). In some ways, I think this is why we miss out on all the smaller, simpler things that transform our subjects and which create inspiring and engaging images.

For over a decade, my personal work of producing pictures became more mundane than a pleasurable; the inspiration had dwindled and my appetite to learn more had nearly disappeared, shaded by a market of over saturated same old. I can't believe that I now think photographs of the world's most beautiful regions are boring to look at.

I was very lucky in the 90s to visit an area of Utah called Zion. This park was nowhere near as well known as it is today. A place that god had created and put in his pocket only for those wanting to visit or, like me, accidentally finding it. Today, however, through social media and the digital world, it has become the opposite. All of its secrets are easily found and ubiquitously available for people to see on their chosen social media platforms. When I see the region on social media, I find myself thinking "Oh, there's Zion again", as if it's a chore to look at. What a shocking attitude I find myself having.