Featured Photographer Revisited

Lizzie Shepherd

Lizzie is a full time professional photographer based in North Yorkshire, specialising in landscape, nature and travel photography. She writes for a number of magazines and runs small group photography workshops. Lizzie’s work is on display at the Joe Cornish Galleries in Northallerton and she has also taken part in a number of different events and exhibitions in the UK. She loves nothing more than being outside, photographing the landscape and looks to find ways of capturing some of our more hidden scenes, hoping to show the beauty and intrigue of the world around us.

lizzieshepherd.com

Michéla Griffith

In 2012 I paused by my local river and everything changed. I’ve moved away from what many expect photographs to be: my images deconstruct the literal and reimagine the subjective, reflecting the curiosity that water has inspired in my practice. Water has been my conduit: it has sharpened my vision, given me permission to experiment and continues to introduce me to new ways of seeing.

michelagriffith.com

Tim spoke to Lizzie Shepherd for our Featured Photographer spot back in March 2013 (you can read the original interview here). Since then Lizzie has picked up a number of commendations – her image Zigzag, Wensleydale, was the Living the View winner in Landscape Photographer of the Year 2015 – and she’s been busy with workshops as well as travel both professionally and personally. Looking through her website it’s clear that her image making has developed since the original interview and we thought it would be good to catch up and see if, among other things, she’s any nearer to finding that elusive balance.

Last year (2017) seemed to be especially busy for you, with a lot of travelling both professional and personal. Was there anywhere or anything that especially made an impact on you? Falling down aside ;-)

Yes, last year seemed a bit crazy – in all honesty, probably a little too much travelling for me although, fall aside, I wouldn’t change a thing – I’ve just redressed the balance somewhat this year. I have to say the fall made a massive impact. I don’t think I’d ever appreciated just how much we take our physical well-being for granted – those of us lucky enough to have such, at least. Not being able to go out properly and do the things I love for several months really did get me down for some time. It has certainly given me even greater respect for those who cope with permanent ill health or disability.