End frame: Sea Mist, Iceland by Tim Rudman

Rob Friel

I started taking photography more seriously when the advent of slide scanners, photoshop and the ability to print for myself made decent quality images possible at home without a darkroom. Although I’d describe myself as a landscape and nature photographer I find myself Increasingly interested in abstract images. I recently achieved my ARPS in fine art with a series of landscape images created using my mobile phone, which I love for its spontaneity.

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I’m not sure what brought about the impulse that led to me responding to Tim’s recent appeal on Facebook for contributions to End Frame. I’ve often thought it would be good to write a short article for it but I’ve always debated what Image I would choose. This time I knew instantly what I wanted to write about, an image I was instantly drawn to, one I was prepared to put on the wall.

Iceland, for all that it is massively overexposed in photographic media and on the internet, is a compelling place photographically. Many excellent photographers have developed compelling bodies of work with Iceland as the sources of their inspiration. But the work I keep returning to is that of the master monochrome printer, Tim Rudman.

I was given the superb book Iceland: An Uneasy Calm back in 2015, a book full of haunting toned monochrome images. Many are strongly graphic images, with a very skilful use of line and contrast. But others are full of detail and delicacy. I don’t tire of looking at the images, but however good a reproduction is in a book they rarely hold up to seeing the prints for real (if you want to know why the master printers like Ansel Adams are so highly regarded, get to see an original print when you get the chance, they positively glow).