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Subcribe to comment rss feedHow I learned to give myself permission to change
Alex Roddie
Alex Roddie is a professional editor, writer, and occasionally photographer active in UK outdoors print media. He’s editor of the magazines Sidetracked and Like the Wind, and regularly writes for The Great Outdoors. He’s passionate about analogue photography although rarely dares take his vintage film cameras out for a spin in winter conditions. Alex is based in Scotland with his wife Hannah.
In 2025, my work shook free from its established forms and took on new shapes, evolving in substance as well as style. So what prompted this metamorphosis? I think it came down to a concept I call creative permission.
I’ve never been a professional photographer in the classic sense. I’ve had a wide variety of images published in books and magazines, even done the odd paid shoot now and again, but it has always been a servile art.
Of course, I’ve always created personal images, and I’ve written about this for On Landscape several times before. There’s always been cross-pollination between my personal and ‘work’ photography.But for a long time, the reality is that I needed to turn my adventures into products to fuel my career. If I was hiking a long-distance trail, I knew I would be writing articles (perhaps even a book), and so I needed to come back with a certain list of shots.