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Steve Coleman
Steve Coleman is an Australian landscape photographer and was the creative director of one of Australia’s most successful design agencies for over 25 years.
What is Landscape Photography, and where might its boundaries lie?
These are constant questions for me. Not because I need answers as such,
but because exploring these questions is helping to guide my photographic journey.
I thought I knew what landscape photography was and where I was going with it. But that has all changed.
My awareness of a landscape, my interpretation of it and how I might photograph it, is now in a wondrous state of flux.
'Wondrous', because I am enjoying the exploration of definitions, and the anticipation of what lies ahead as I explore where the boundaries of a landscape photograph might be. I am excited by the prospect of where this might lead me, and I am enjoying the space and the freedom which such exploration offers.
In this process, I am discovering new photographers, new visions and the different relationships which each of them have with their landscapes.
My questioning of what I thought I knew, is causing me to grow creatively and technically as a photographer and as a person.
Why is any of this important to you? Well, perhaps it is not. The value of asking questions will of course be different for each of us. However I think an exploration of such core questions can be of help in guiding our own photographic journeys.
For me, photography is first and foremost a creative pursuit. Therefore, everything I think of and do with my photography is influenced by this.
My definition of creativity requires me to visually explore, to experiment, to wander in mind and in vision as I seek out to create landscape visions.