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Issue 146 PDF
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Large Format Lenses – The Standards
Part 4 of a Series on Large Format Photography
End frame: Pale Shelter by Mark Littlejohn
Damien Davis chooses one of his favourite images
Limestone Landscapes
Flow & Time
Subscribers 4×4 Portfolios
Fabrizio Marocchini, Harris Steinman, Paolo Berto & Richard Ellis
Geoff Woods
Featured Photographer
Exhibition 2
The landscape photography of Ian Cameron & Jim Robertson
Chalk Hills White Horses
THE HILL FIGURES THROUGH SOUTHERN ENGLAND

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Viewpoint Editor’s Letter editor@onlandscape.co.uk
Tim Parkin

It’s that competition time of year again and just after the announcement of the UK’s Landscape Photographer of the Year winners, it’s the Wildlife Photographer of the Year’s turn. I was lucky enough to sit next to this year’s winner, Brent Stirton, whilst attending last year’s award dinner. Listening to him tell me the story about his series of images put into perspective the large gap between the typical landscape photography competition and something like wildlife photographer of the year.

I’m not meaning to denigrate any particular competition or genre, a purely aesthetic ranking of photographs is not inherently bad in any way, but it can leave one with a desire for something extra. Most landscape photographs are unlikely to have to same raw depth as Brent’s winning image but whilst talking about this with a few photographers, it struck me that what is really missing in most of the photographs I see in landscape photography is any sense of ‘story’. And this sense of story doesn’t have to be profound, look at Jem Southam’s “River Winter”, Colin Bell’s “Healing”, Jane Fulton Alt’s “The Burn”, Michael Jackson’s “Poppit Sands”. Like extending single words into meaningful sentences, these photographers use the sets of images they produce to give grammatical structure to their work. Where an individual image may be interpreted in many ways, each additional images in a series closes the possibilities and hones the intended interpretations and implied narrative.

Working in this way also reveals more about the photographer, not only in their subjects of interest but because most of the decisions that go into each image are intentional and hence quite personal. I for one would love to see a competition based on these “Landscape Stories” that showcased some of the great talent I have seen throughout the landscape photography community. If you think this is a good idea, or a have any other ideas, please drop us a line.

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Tim Parkin

Content Issue One Hundred and Forty Six
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Issue 146 PDF

I’m not meaning to denigrate any particular competition or genre, a purely aesthetic ranking of photographs is not inherently bad in any way, but it can leave one with a desire for something extra. more

Comments

Large Format Lenses – The Standards

When people first try out large format photography and they come to the choice of lens for their first kit, they typically make a few common mistakes. more

Comments

End frame: Pale Shelter by Mark Littlejohn

Why am I drawn to it so much? I think the combination of the blizzard-like conditions, which produce a whiteout around the whole border of the image, added to the deep snow on the ground make for a truly beautiful winter scene. more

Comments

Limestone Landscapes

One rock stands out, to me, as just that little bit different, that little bit special – limestone. Limestone has a story to tell like no other, a story that spans the vastness of geological time and yet one that continues on a scale more comprehensible to humans. more

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Subscribers 4×4 Portfolios

Our 4x4 feature is a set of 4 landscape photography portfolios from our subscribers: Fabrizio Marocchini, Harris Steinman, Paolo Berto & Richard Ellis more

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Geoff Woods

The image is very important, it must have feeling, and it must speak for you when you’re not there. A picture must say a thousand words as they say. more

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Exhibition 2

Ian Cameron and I have joined forces for our second shared exhibition. There is no ‘theme’ as such to the exhibition as it is a selection of the work we have produced individually over the last two years. more

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Chalk Hills White Horses

A surprise to find the words when photographing the White Horses and Hill figures in Southern England. more

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