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Sometimes it’s quite difficult to get a perspective on how historic photographers work. Very often the books published during their lifetimes have an innate agenda, either commercial or creative, and retrospective books often have restrictions on access to images or want to portray the photographer in a certain way to fit in with the artistic period in which they worked. Josef Sudek, featured in this issue, is a prime example. When you read the overviews of his creative output, you would think he was hanging around with the likes of Rodchenko, Moholy-Nagy and Man Ray and heavily influenced by the constructivist and surrealist painters. The truth is somewhat more nuanced. He certainly had friends who were Catholic in their outlook but he was still producing work in a Pictorial vein around that time. His famous photographs in the modernist style were mostly made as commissions from a publishing house who had a creative director with a strong sense of the contemporary styles and would guide Sudek’s hand in the advertising work he would produce. It is undoubted that these experiences had an influence on his own creative work but at heart, he was very much an example of an outsider artist who ploughed his own furrow to produce work that defied pigeonholing. Essentially he was a romantic artist with a broad spectrum of interests that ended up with a unique way of seeing his world. Seen in this vein (and hopefully my overview of history will help), his work and life are much more inspiring and easier to understand for many of us who aspire to create a body of work with such a strong identity. In other words, open your mind to everything but follow your heart and let it all come out in the wash!
Tim Parkin
Issue 137 PDF
Josef Sudek whenn you read the overviews of his creative output, you would think he was hanging around with the likes of Rodchenko, Moholy-Nagy and Man Ray and heavily influenced by the constructivist and surrealist painters. more
The Forest de Fontainebleau
Widely lauded as one of the early pioneers of modern hiking, Denecourt personally carved 1100 kilometres of forest walking trails and about 300 kilometres of footpaths. more
Josef Sudek
Josef Sudek may not be known as a landscape photographer, much of his work was still life, urban, occasionally portraits and quite often commercial commissions. However, his passion was very much about the natural world, his first award-winning work was for a landscape after all. more
Endframe: “Dancing Aspen” by Charlotte Gibb
Barry Edge chooses one of his favourite images: "Dancing Aspen" by Charlotte Gibb. more
Subscribers 4×4 Portfolios
Our 4x4 feature is a set of 4 landscape photography portfolios from our subscribers: Hilary Barton, Jonny Bell, Julie Varo & Sonja Grubenmann more
Surviving Spring
This part is by way of a round-up of some of the key points from previous articles - which focused on sun protection and hydration in summer, water-proofing and flexibility in autumn, insulation and snow preparedness in winter. more
Kilian Schönberger
Kilian Schönberger is a professional photographer & geographer from Germany. He has previously said that he sees being colour blind as a strength – given the difficulty of distinguishing certain tones, he concentrates on pattern and structure. more
The Edges Of These Isles
This project is a collaboration between artist Tom Musgrove and photographer Simon Bray, depicting seven landscape locations from across the British Isles using their respective mediums. more
Focusing The Manual Way
Since I am mostly shooting landscapes I prefer using manual focusing. I have never really understood how to use autofocus when shooting a landscape. more