Composing Chaos

Julian Barkway

Iam what can best be described as an enthusiastic amateur photographer. I try not to follow fashion or trends and I’m never happier than shooting with my 5x4 camera on good old sheet film. The intimate landscape is what interests me which is, perhaps, surprising given that I have been based in Switzerland for a number of years. My favoured habitat is the bottom of a rocky gorge but I do occasionally emerge to shoot the bigger vista. And I do occasionally shoot digital - but shhh, don’t tell anyone! website

Let's face it, nature can be pretty chaotic at times. Not really on the small scale, where natural forms can be elegant and beautiful, or on the large scale, where distance and perspective bring order and a ready visual hierarchy - sky, land, sea, patterns of agriculture: it's all there in front of you. No, it's the bit in the middle where things start getting tricky. The middle-ground can often be a chaotic, confusing place but it can also be very fertile ground for photographers with an eye for order within the chaos.