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Issue 135 PDF
Browse On Landscape on your Tablet, iPad or Desktop
Len Metcalf
Meeting of Minds Conference 2016
Subscribers 4×4 Portfolios
Alan Howe, Gary Wagner, Gerard McGrath & Ian Moore
Wild camping in The Shetland Isles
A Coastal Traverse
Rachael Talibart
Featured Photographer
The Science and Art of Hydrology
The life & intrinsic beauty of flowing water
Black Dots
An exploration of mountain bothies and bothy culture
Manmade Landscapes
A deeper message
First Light Exhibition Discussion
Joe Cornish, Tim Parkin, Julian Calverley, Baxter Bradford, Beata Moore, Matt Lethbrige & Harvey Lloyd-Thomas
Desert Epiphany
An Appreciation of Harmony in the Landscape
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One of the constant contrasts in landscape photography is the supposed dichotomy between representing the landscape and wild and pristine and showing the effects of man on the landscape. One of the most ‘famous’ exhibitions in photographic history (The New Topographics) was founded on contradicting the supposed zeitgeist of ‘wild beauty’ (even though most of the photographers involved in the exhibition didn’t have an agenda of that sort at all and had little in common with each other in reality).
In fact, there has always been a strong topic of representing man's effect on the landscape from the very start of photography. Atget, Fenton, Sudek, Steiglitz, Strand ... I could go on. All of these have worked a broad range of landscape. And it’s wrong to consider this as some sort of forced dichotomy - we can have beauty in destruction (witness Burtynsky’s work and the recent work from Hans Strand in this issue) and to add to the matter, our own landscape in the UK is massively altered by the history of man’s influence. Nicholas White’s photographs of the bothy system featured in this issue show not only the buildings of the bothys themselves but all of the denuded mountains around them (a hot topic in terms of hillside sheep farming and deer numbers). Like most things in life, there is a spectrum of approaches that started long before New Topographics and will continue long after and our genre is all the better for that.
Tim Parkin
Issue 135 PDF
One of the constant contrasts in landscape photography is the supposed dichotomy between representing the landscape and wild and pristine and showing the effects of man on the landscape. more
Len Metcalf
Len's talk looked into his approaches to simplicity and the use of visual punctuation as a tool to create absorbing images. At the end of the video we include a short 'behind the scenes' interview about Len's work. more
Subscribers 4×4 Portfolios
Our 4x4 feature is a set of 4 landscape photography portfolios from our subscribers: Alan Howe, Gary Wagner, Gerard McGrath & Ian Moore. more
Wild camping in The Shetland Isles
For anyone looking to photograph somewhere a bit more off the beaten track, The Shetlands offer up something different, and with the low number of tourists you can have the place to yourself for days on end. more
Rachael Talibart
There’s been a noticeable shift in Rachael Talibart’s images over time. Not surprisingly for someone with a self-confessed love of the sea, this has become an increasingly significant part of her work. more
The Science and Art of Hydrology
The history of art suggests that it has proven really rather difficult to represent the dynamics of flowing water in two-dimensional images. It appears to be one of the greatest challenges for an artist. This is perhaps for good scientific reasons. more
Black Dots
‘Black Dots’ is an exploration of mountain bothies and bothy culture throughout the United Kingdom. Far from civilisation and mostly accessible only by foot, these secluded mountain shelters are scattered across the British Isles. more
Manmade Landscapes
Just look down from a window seat of an aeroplane and you see what man has done to the landscape under you. Almost everything you see is manmade. more
First Light Exhibition Discussion
On Saturday 4th March 2017 we launched our second exhibition 'First Light Inspiration' and held a panel discussion with Joe Cornish, Tim Parkin and the exhibiting photographers to discuss the influence and inspiration of First Light on their photography and the wider conversation around influence and inspiration in their creativity. more
Desert Epiphany
Our somewhat spontaneous plan to journey through the deserts of China’s Silk Road for three weeks was only 4 days old, having been born on a New Year’s Day walk near our home on the west coast of Scotland. more