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I’ve never been a member of a book club. I’ve never sat down and read a book expecting to discuss it at a later date with one or more people. To do so with fiction seemed an intrusion into my private space. However, I think I might change my mind as in a recent experiment with Joe Cornish, we both read Robert Adams’ “Beauty in Photography” and although it’s a non-fiction book, the knowledge that I would be discussing the ideas therein changed the way I read the book. I asked myself questions about concepts; I tried to place myself in the context of the photographer to understand their motives; I looked at the photographers work to try to gain a connection with the book’s ideas.
Following this up with Joe and chatting around these ideas really helped me understand some of my own thoughts better. This shouldn’t come as a surprise but it did and how much I enjoyed the process was also surprising. I hope you enjoy our discussion in this issue and if you have any suggestions about other books we could repeat the process with, I’d love to know. (please don’t choose Schama’s “Landscape and Memory”!!) just email us at submissions@onlandscape.co.uk.
Tim Parkin
Issue 208 PDF
Click here to download issue 208 (high quality, 160Mb) Click here to download issue 208 (smaller download, 97Mb) more
End Frame: Autumn Leaves in Wood by Glenys Garnett
Are we looking at the mist in the woodland, or do the colder tones, along with the sparse nature of the leaves, represent the last throws of autumn and the onset of winter? more
Cloudscapes
The huge fall in air travel since late March seems to have brought out cloudscapes which I’d either never noticed before or were hidden by the crisscrossing contrails. more
Landscape and the Philosophers of Photography
The battle between the photographer and the camera to provide an informative image and avoiding redundancy is an increasing challenge as novel locations become commonplace and cameras and digital processing more sophisticated. more
There are no Straight Lines in the Wilderness
Out here in this wild and barren place, was geometric evidence of man shaping the landscape, but with conventional photography, I couldn't get the photograph I wanted. more
David Foster
I sometimes say that my work explores the interface between nature and culture, but actually, in recent years, I’ve found the culture bit diminishing, although making art that deals closely with the natural world is always going to be a kind of manifestation of that interface anyway: a culturisation of nature. more
Graveyard Bins
The bins and the contents were really just part of what I was trying to convey. It was the mechanisms of grief and ritual I was commenting on and their wider impact on our daily lives. more
Joe Cornish and Tim Parkin discuss Robert Adams and Beauty
The concept of ‘beauty’ often seems to be a dirty word to those photographers from a ‘contemporary/academic’ background. The use of beauty is considered too bright a light to be seen direct for fear you go blind to the meaning behind a work. more
Shooting in the Dark
Do we need to reconsider our approach to photographing the landscape? I think we do. If the quest for true answers will limit our freedom to roam the world in the pursuit of creativeness and adventure, are we willing to take the consequences? more
The Highs and Lows of a Landscape Photographer
Do you remember Ciara and Dennis – how can you not?! Sod’s law would have it that I managed to coincide my trip with these two storms more