Join the conversation
Subcribe to comment rss feedArjun Nambiar chooses one of his favourite images
Arjun Nambiar
A surgeon based in the north-east, who moonlights (twilights? almost-any-lights?) as a photographer. Being a surgeon by profession requires constant attention to detail and technical proficiency that can be attained only through disciplined practice - qualities that will undoubtedly appear very familiar to readers of this esteemed publication!
‘A winter coral’ is not exactly a landscape photograph. Yet, somehow, it evokes so much of what, to me, makes great landscape photography. Trym Ivar Bergsmo was, in his own words, of the North. He travelled all over the world making images, searching for his ‘inner landscape’, but ultimately found it at home. That home can be different things to different people; the connection is the key. Just like relationships, building those connections takes time, thought, effort, persistence, perseverance, and patience. Looking through Trym’s portfolio, that connection shines through, and it is fitting that the team at ‘On Landscape’ will be writing a tribute to him and his work.
So much of landscape photography is about light; the quality, direction and fall/differential. These aspects may seem outside our control a lot of the time, but the more of a connection we have with our subject, the more we are able to mould these elements to build a narrative. In a winter coral, we have ethereal soft light throughout the frame, but the warmth of the sunlight seems to pick out just a few of the faces and the landscape beyond. This effect is enhanced by the warm skin tones and the red accents in the clothing, yet these elements are not harsh due to the considered use of shutter speed and soft focus. The relatively slow shutter speed also causes the movement in the reindeer, rendering them almost like the flow of a river. There is an organic dynamism to the sense of movement through the frame; it feels alive.
Almost nothing in the frame is pin sharp, yet it conveys so much. They say a picture can speak a thousand words, but a great picture leaves even the words behind. They convey feelings, glimpses, fleeting ideas and emotions; things we often can’t describe or put into words, but we can sense on some, almost metaphysical, level. When you come across images that do that, they make a lasting impression.
These days, our cameras surpass anything we could truly require in terms of technical excellence and the ability to capture almost any scene or subject. Our ability, as photographers, to truly convey emotion remains an elusive skill, though. Generative AI already has the capability to produce almost anything we ask of it, but I dare say it would fail to produce an image with the depth of soul that this one has.
Images like these are not about technical skill or processing power; they are about a human connection and response to a place, people, conditions and circumstances. These things require an open heart and open mind to allow the energy to flow through us, and Trym did his bit to show us the way.