We’re on the sixth episode of our “Any Questions?” podcast series, and I’ve been really enjoying the chance for Joe Cornish and me to put some of our readers’ questions to a range of photographers. For this episode, it was a pleasure to chat with David Ward, as it always is. One of the topics we covered was “What is style?”—something I think gets to the heart of what landscape photography is about. As photographers, we often get caught up in the goal of finding the perfect picture (which we also talked about in the “curse of the masterpiece”), but this act of looking for that picture can take us down roads that we’re perhaps not interested in but feel we have to take.

The attraction of popular locations and subjects is enough to pull us away from just doing what interests us. And “what interests us” is a bigger influence on personal style than any post-processing elements or choices of location, etc. Over time, our interest in different aspects of the outdoors—such as geology, weather, flora, etc.—will influence what we look at and how we weigh the contents of our frame. This influence will become consistent and, over time, be one of the characteristic features of our style. These balances of interests beyond the craft of photography create a unique signature that, combined with craft, produces an engaging and interesting portfolio.

Talking about David Ward’s work, he may take pictures in many different locations around the world, but his fascination with the way light works, with juxtapositions of shapes, with the patina of decay, and with emergent forms in nature all combine to give an overall character to his portfolio. His eye for recognizing potential in the world and the craft to mould it into something engaging to the eye and brain defines his style. Spending more time interested in the world and less interested in post-processing and gear may seem trite, but that’s the takeaway this week!

Click here to download issue 306 (high quality, 120Mb)

Click here to download issue 306 (smaller download, 63Mb)