Charlie Waite - Behind the Photograph

[Applause] where to begin just got an hour an hour to talk about landscape photography I think the best way that I can begin and I've done a little rehearsal is what are we going to put inside of this frame the still image is very still it has no dialogue it has no music it doesn't move and yet its role is to awaken something in somebody the viewer so how is it that the viewer what is it within the image that the viewer will make either a favorable response or an unfavorable response to it what is it that we have to incorporate into our landscape image whatever it may be it's outside well I think if we treat it on a trial and error basis and we do it on a hit-and-miss basis in the way that we used to when we had rolls of 36 do you remember we used to press the shutter and many of us including me would say just after we press the shutter we might say it to a neighbor hope that comes out what does hope that comes out mean it doesn't mean technically or does it mean that within that image some of our own emotional response I don't know what other criteria one can use to measure a photograph oh it's a nice pattern looks nice nice color we are using our emotions to respond we definitely are and if we're going to make a favorable response then what does that landscape photographer have to imbue what into the image to suggest at least that there's something of them in that photograph there's something of their relationship that they're having at the time of making the image with the landscape so in a way were honoring the landscape photography is about noticing it's about wonder it's about relishing it's about contemplation it's about meditating it's about thinking of our own existence it's about thinking about this extraordinary planet that's spinning around and really it's a thing mostly for me it's the thing about embracing my own sense of amazement within the image and I think that's what we're all doing so what word could we use well beauty what's wrong with beauty not really cool these days I went with my daughter to New York we about 15 years ago more maybe because I wanted an exhibition in New York bit scary had a big portfolio had a fancy suit my daughter said I look like a bookie which is not really very nice of her but anyway we made 20 appointments with 20 galleries in Soho and other parts and Broadway and so on and most of the galleries in fact almost all of the galleries except one we went into and they looked at my big portfolio and they said oh my god this is beautiful work oh my god this is amazing pause but we can't show you oh why well it's you know it's just beautiful images it's and here comes the killer thing it's it's it's you know decorative one it's literal - it's a representational three and I'll never forget my close friend and Joe saying to me I candy well okay if you want to write it off like that but what are two and a half million people doing when they come to the Lake District are they coming just to say no we've been to the literacy no they're not why do people climb why do people stop their car and just say oh look at that photograph photographer or not photographer what is it that arrests people it's beauty it's a response to beauty the camera is the most wonderful conduit to be able to secure and to harness that beauty but we have to do it wholeheartedly we have to do it not on a hit and miss as I said earlier an occasional you know you never know it might come out basis we have to completely explore analyze investigate interpret respond being a photographer's not quite an artist what does artists mean I think it's a responder and it and an interpreter and we're there alone more often than not where our stage director where our lighting director where our choreographer where all of these things mixed up and ultimately we're waiting for the final signal to press that little humble noise isn't it a little funny be as you press the shutter and at that moment an immense thing happens all of that response that we have made to our landscapes come landscape comes rushing through the camera and is secured onto what used to be film but now the memory card then something extraordinary happens I think we're all can identify with this we in the old days many of us will remember downcome which always a private experience wasn't it you you got it from the Royal Mail special D and it arrived and you ripped open the packet you didn't want anyone else to be there out came your Tran is your sheets of 12 or whatever it was in my case or in jail case one in a few sheets of five four ten eight and out it comes and you look at it and you look at it quickly you need to you need to know is it there is what there is some of the gravitas some of the pace thoughts some of the are human emotional response that we that we invested that we received that wonderful exchange between landscape and us us and landscape landscape enough is it there or is it soulless and sterile well sometimes many of us will know we just go ah it's not that and it doesn't matter I hang how many people say oh but it's beautiful we know it's not there it didn't it didn't work the great Ansel Adams forgive me I'm a bit old school but I'm alright about that the great Ansel Adams who wrote let's face it the camera the negative the print you know they're worth reading their stand up today as much as they ever did I do urge you to just reinvestigate him he's not passe he's not yesterday's man he's as today as he always was and one of the loveliest things that were said about him was that he was able to convert transform geographical reality to transcendent emotional experience what a completely lovely thing and what he would say was if I can remember recognition and pre-visualization blended together in one single moment of awareness so if you sort of break that down and unravel it which were going to talk about in a minute his head turned he recognized he pre-visualized and he then produced the most perfect divinely perfect not contaminated by anything no aberrations absolutely sublimely perfect image in here in here then he had to get the camera whatever it was today try for a little foray with Hasselblad and color which I think he would probably be quite happy to kind of put to one side but there he was trying to produce an image that had parity with what he's already done I mean he could almost just walk away and not do it but but he can't do that he's got it he's a landscape photographer so he's got to do the image he's got to make it happen so he stands there and he sets up 45 seconds a minute he's a very fast worker sometimes and he then had this extraordinary wrestle between trying to produce an image with the feet of clay if you like and the exposure and mechanics and the technical which he did with his eyes closed virtually and then he needed to produce an image that ultimately would have parity with his pre-visualization and he was a great you know he was I mean his histogram the histogram comes from him pretty much you know expose of the shadows develop for the highlights he could compress and contract a subject brightness range like nobody could absolutely sublime and no he didn't do endless burning and dodging he reinterpreted some of his images yes at a later date but really he was an extraordinary man he engaged with the landscape in such a pure beautiful way and that's what we're all trying to do in this room we'll all try and to do that so our role really is to celebrate beauty it's that simple and I think the more we can drive that back drive people to understand that it isn't literal you know or eye candy it's actually something that we had make a huge emotional response to it's all we've got it is off with God there isn't anything else you know and why is it that we all want to go out and all the time go after now turn out and outside and do things and engage and be part of it and and I think many we're probably all photographers you know the rainbow is a classic thing you'll see a rainbow everybody goes oh look at that rainbow this immediately responding to beauty oh isn't that beautiful I have to own it I have to secure it so quickly on for a moment five days ago I took a ride in a the state-of-the-art top-of-the-range Tesla motor car I have to remember exactly what it what it's capable of because I don't understand most of it naught to 60 in three seconds quite extraordinary and the drive aren't very nice friend said put your head against the seat rest because I'm going to show you what this can do marvellous and he did and my eye was thrown back like like in a rocket so I needed us read out of this is great I wrote it earlier nor two sixteen three seconds six radar thing is eighty megapixels it's funny four-wheel drive 20-inch info screen focus stacking odd how do they come together but we never looked out of the window so the analogy is I know we have I know we have digital we live with digital Photoshop is absolutely marvelous or Lightroom or whatever image manipulation software we have it's fantastic is liberated photographers to be to do all sorts of things but the key surely the key is to do so with restraint to do it with integrity because the moment you can always tell the moment you have an exhibition you can always tell photographers and we all are photographers and I do this there's the image on the screen on the out rather on the on the wall and Here Come a pair of photographers all of us and it goes straight in like that they go straight in like that and here come the usual suspects pixelation oversaturation sharpening and bad HDR and you see them stamping humanity on other people just look at the photograph other people just look at the photograph but not us we have to go in there so bad HDR you know I I do see bad HDR sometimes it's rather alarming because I think to myself hold on a minute the lighting ratios are skewed that's messing with God's light a shadow is a shadow I can always hear the shadow sing but I'm a shadow don't fill me up with light so there are various things that I think that Digital has brought with as many pros but a few cons for example it's made us reckless I'm not saying that when we had our images you know our role of 120 and we had only 12 images left and oh gosh I mean Here I am wherever I am and I've got hardly any film left oh gosh I better become a bit more discerning because I've got many films left of course that's not it but it is making us a little bit reckless and I'm I would love to one day run a workshop where we've just gotten I don't know 40 megapixel card or whatever it is it was nowadays it would have to be a little bit more so let us think as as Mark so brilliantly said let us just pare away all of this technical all of this the bits and pieces that perhaps are intruding in some way into our pure relationship that we're having with the landscape we have to read the landscape we have to relish it we have to drink it in and then we have to start doing the process of saying well I am gonna make a photograph of it right well I better be I better be aware of all the time incorporating and omitting the redundant bits so I better have a really good think about it I better look at the sky rather important isn't it I mean what painter would just say how gosh I thought I'd finish but I've forgotten the sky silly me let's think about the beauty of clouds and the structure of clouds let's think about the clouds that actually aren't in your photograph in fact the ones that aren't in your photograph I'm often often more useful than the ones that are because you can orchestrate and I'm sure all of you now we all know you can orchestrate your lighting you are the writing director after all the unsung hero in the theater poor lighting director never gets a single single thing said about him costume designer director actors set designer on all the rest of it writer playwright but the little lighting directors right underneath you might just see him lighting by and yet they can bring immense pathos into it into a production so let's let's not forget all of those incredibly important elements look around let's look around the edges of our of our photograph I mean it's so easy to be preoccupied with the central bit let's not just look globally let's just Rhenish all the little elements all the aspects all the intricate integral part all the components that will come together and interlock so sweetly that then when we see the image at the end of the day we never say to ourselves on how shameful this is we never say to ourselves and I do I'm afraid oh I didn't notice that years ago the advance will look at some pictures in a minute the advance driving test somebody told me it's a bit it's a bit fanciful but it I think it's possibly true the advance driving test the examiner puts his or her hand over the driving mirror and says what's the color of the car behind how many people in it male or female driving and give me one or two letters of the registration plate many of us might say well I didn't know there's a car behind so we have to think to ourselves when we're looking at the landscape let's receive every wonderful bit of it let's just relish every little bit of it and just use as much of our process of examination that we can possibly muster to be able to say yeah that's a new and yeah no no no it's not going to work and if you feel that sense of insecurity walk away you it's you know making a silk purse out of a sow's ear is is is often really not not the answer the key really am tragically when one has hoped for a scoop you often look at the result as we said a little bit earlier and we see a result that actually doesn't awaken anything in finally before we look at images I have made friends for the last 10 years with a very distinguished neurosurgeon brain surgeon and I asked him how long do you think does it take for an individual who sees a landscape photograph photograph landscape photograph for the first time - to make a response favorable or unfavorable and Henry said well let's not forget the eye in their brain or an extraordinary double act and hmm maybe a second really yeah so can we break that down in me Wow does that how can you how does that work well he maintained that you scan you process you interpret you divot you build associations that may go right the way back to images that your parents might have put in your bedroom when you were 5 years old all sorts of things will take place in your in your multi terabyte zillion terabyte brain and you'll start delivering ultimately as formulating a response that within a second will result in something like I love that that's beautiful that's so beautiful funny that were beautiful it appears rather a lot doesn't it in photographic speak and so it should because that's what we're doing we're just simply celebrating beauty so rather than go on and on and on I think we'll start with a few photographs I think I've got this right yes I meet quite a few people too who say to me I love black and white oh yeah I do too guys I reply I love black and white dude and they say and then he's really wonderful this it's much more arty isn't it yes I suppose it is what do you what do you mean by that well it's just more arty yes yes yes I suppose it is but I'm not quite sure what you mean by arty well I don't know it's just it's just I mean we don't see in black-and-white doing it just got I don't know he's just we just I don't know he's just more artistic right so color not no no colors colors not Artie well no no Artie color is Artie of course it is well so it is interesting how I'm black and white which we all love no I don't know a single landscape photographer who says they don't like black and white vehemence see we're open to everything we're celebrating photography were celebrating the human response to our world around us and that's what that still camera does how many still photographers have really messed with that little red button to make moving film hardly any of us we don't even know how to edit it were totally hooked on the still image if I said one word to you how quickly does it take you to come up with an image Napalm yes that little naked girl everyone knows it and I could mention many many others so I'm going to talk very quickly now we're going to we're going to go quite speedily through the various ways in which I been influenced and why I have been I love looking at photographs I love landscape photographers and landscape photography because I know the world talking the same language we all feel and respond in exactly the same way as one another that's why we all get on so well so Margaret Bork white in 1904 not bad pretty contemporary pushed open a door and saw some Steinway pianos just being fixed and I immediately thought gosh that's so graceful gosh that's so rhythmical oh that's so lovely Edward Weston going through his vegetable period he flipped a cabbage leaf on to the other side and suddenly thought saw not a cabbage leaf anymore Oh for heaven's sake no it's nothing to do with it being a cabbage it's something to do with something graceful and beautiful and sort of seen ewis and and you know reminiscent of maybe a riverbed who knows what it might ruin innocent Dom but he suddenly introduced to us something that was absolutely remarkable a beautiful thing his pepper I mean heavens above 40 or of them you did I think something like that and how brilliant of him to decide to know put it on a flat surface but to embrace it with a concave surface wrapping it up it's become a voluptuous thing absolutely breathtakingly beautiful nothing to do with being a red pepper just a marvelous beautiful thing that happens to be something that he responded to can you imagine the pleasure he got with producing this and forgive me Edward mr. Weston sorry for the burnt out highlights they wouldn't have existed oh no they definitely wouldn't I had a job in Libya a while ago and it was quite an interesting experience and I won't go into it in depth but I never did quite find out exactly who commissioned me but one or two people suggested who it might be and I did I really enjoyed it I was there three and a half months and I'd love to say that I came back you know Andrew machine-gun fire jumping across rooftops trying to get home but actually I came back on a perfectly ordinary scheduled British Airways flight but on the 17th of February and it pretty much kicked off I think in Benghazi but that's pretty well going away from the point I wanted to make there's a certain word that I like to use called refinement and I think the more we engage and I'm sorry I'm repeating myself the more we engage with what we intend to make a photograph of the better I have a little phrase sorry I've got a few of them attend an intend attend to everything and let everything attended to be either intended or not intended or accepted to be there that's I think a really important thing attend to everything and I played a little joke the little game because I was really interested in this process of responding what is it and I repeat what is it in the viewer that responds favorably what is it that you've invested within your photograph that encourages a favorable response from the viewer when they say they've never been to the country they don't know anything about it they've never been to Glencoe or Scotland where ever it is Wales doesn't matter but what is it that you've got right that they then just say oh that's beautiful so I decided to play this little game and I thought refinement refinement and so the first thing I did was I I'm Anna jannat regular with Photoshop I managed to produce a photograph where that pricked the skyline I've got this little phobia I'm in treatment for it I might say we're you know verticals bisecting horizontals and it is a silly thing it's actually a silly thing it doesn't really stand up but I've just got a thing about it so but I showed that to my wife this image and one where I just just pricked the skyline and it was fascinating I've now done it about 20 times and I laid to print side by side and I said sweetie these photos I've only ever done it once she finds it deeply boring these photographs are in every respect completely and utterly identical I promise you they are absolutely identical but which one do you prefer well her response because she's quite short-tempered is what for God's sake I either like both or I hate both but nevertheless she just said our cut I got you know I can hear her now saying I've got better things to do well that one and I've done this nearly 20 times and a hundred percent of the time it's been the one where there has been just that little tiny bit of extra refinement so don't underestimate the eye and it's and the brain in conjunction as being unbelievably discerning so don't just Palm off the viewer with something that you were you know not able to notice we talked about that to say when we look at our finished result room I never really saw that what's really bad and what's really worrying is when somebody says oh I love the way you've done that and you think I did I'm not sure I ever really was fully aware of that so it's very very easy to to not fully invest all of yourself into your production because I think that's really what a photograph is it's a production it's multi-dimensional there are so many things that are taking place within it fitting not fitting conflicting it's just it's just the most wonderful construction process lovely process never mind never mind this kind of quasi-religious explain means that you're going through which we are I have a friend a doctor friend who I won't no need to tell you his name but he's a completely lovely man who had a period of deep depression and he he went to his a when for some treatment and the and the therapist said where are you your most happiest he said I'm at my most happiest when I'm standing behind my tripod with a camera on it waiting for things to happen to my liking I thought what a what an absolutely beautiful way of describing where he gets a sense of calm and peace and joy gonna go a bit faster now I have to say thank you to my friend Joe Cornish for saying yeah you'd love Namibia Charlie take a panoramic camera and bless him he's sitting here now and I did exactly that so thank you Joe and I love Namibia and I wasn't going to go and interesting my sister who's quite term I can I put it quite critical district constructively critical said Charlie it's lovely all this lovely grace and rhythm and all of these lovely you know hemispheres and and little crests and little diagonals and and triangles and all sorts of things but she said Charlie darling I'm awfully sorry the sky is completely wrong what what do you mean the sky is wrong and she said well it's too chaotic you've got this lovely graceful Fortman and rhythmical shapes underneath from the skies to clear up Katie and I think she's right so but I didn't know what value to put him and I've guarded up back on like three or four times now blue sky you know had maybe a dark sky red filter all that stuff but make it slightly more punchy but haven't have a you know a mid-tone make this a zone five or whatever it is but and ultimately I've never really succeeded so it's quite interesting when somebody introduces something that suddenly my confidence in a way it goes and I I'm not I'm sort of reevaluated so it's a fascinating process response to the to the image I have a Photoshop friend I'm going to speed up a little bit who's much better at it than I am much much better and I showed him this image in Timbuktu as one does go to Timbuktu every other and he said I said you know I'm really fed up because the but the bum end of this camel one is concealing the head and neck of camel two and he said Oh for god sake Charlie give me five minutes I'll sort it I'll separate them for you so he did and it was marvelous but I couldn't sleep at night it just it just didn't you know it was haunting me and it's a bit like Ansel Adams we go back quickly back to one of the things that extension of which I'd perhaps didn't complete where he produces an image in those 30 seconds that didn't have parity with his pre-visualization and why because he was forced to tolerate compromises that he didn't want to have to tolerate but he did it nevertheless and we do it nevertheless and we have remember I've talked to many of my friends we have category B C D YZ and F's we really do 12 year and you're doing well 12 you and you're doing well is what he said 12 a year that met his stratospherically high standards that he set himself which are so elusive they keep getting higher and you keep climbing up to try and get to them to try and produce something which to you seems absolutely perfect thankfully we never will there's always some little tiny thing I remember reading somewhere there was a little specular highlight just off a leaf that he didn't actually really want there and a wind got up suddenly oh there was a ruffle on the water you know that it didn't he didn't want to have that wasn't there when he first came so the reflection in some way was broken so compromises are the worst they like a terrible thing to have to tolerate with any creative endeavor we want to reduce the number of compromises that we're forced to make so that the image that we produce ultimately does satisfy us and we do feel that we did fully embrace that own our own emotional response that we made an a sense of wonder and relishing within the still image so anyway the finished result was very impressive for him and very impressed I was very impressed by seeing this brilliantly skillful way he separated two camels this is an extraordinary experience for me because I cannot do things quickly and I had no idea that the net would be in we're acting like an indie neutral density uniform ND filter I had no idea that it would suddenly reveal high cirrus you know lovelies six miles high and made mostly of ice I gather my met friend says I had absolutely no idea and I didn't know that when it when it the image finally appeared when I made a print that the knot would be exactly above his hand I didn't know that that would be reminiscent of a bit of Cirrus so it's it's really fascinating to to when you're sort of sailing blind I'm completely out of controls I could never be a sports were talking about how brilliant they are I could never be a wedding photographer how brilliant they are to deal with things that are constantly moving the Amish people I felt very in I was invading their territory and this man knew I was but did what was it that told me the final signal and we all know this that little moment where you think now now you just get it then you just think now it's lovely then you knowing digital as we do we think oh I'll do another one nothing's really changed at all actually nothing I do another one still nothing's changed but mmm I'll just do another one and that's why we're all by and bloody external Tarrant five terabyte hard drives full of unedited stuff you know it's it's it's so easy isn't it to eventually to end up with images that in the old days you know we'd have just done perhaps one or two in Joe and I remembers in fact Joe very sweetly introduced me to Getty which was another marvellous of the generous thing that he did and interestingly enough in those days I think we did brothers or sisters and we gave him you know five or six trainers and off they went around the world so they are mission 30,000 of them in Pennsylvania I had an American friend who was a bit dismissive of the miniature Charlie and I get up in the middle of the night I mean I finally get some white paint and I'm gonna I'm gonna put wwr Escom on one of their buggies knowing how they reject 21st century we're gonna move on quickly staircases absolutely love staircase and we're talking about influences so I've been influenced certainly by many wonderful photographers of marvellous done marvelous photographs I mean this is in the landscape but isn't it a beauty Elliott Erwitt the great Elliott always Felix Gladys and Rover which is which absolutely lovely image and he you know they were they were ready to go when they were apt they had a contacts or a like a preset aperture preset shutter speed preset turn nail it fantastic response rate absolutely marvelous and and I had to go and I'm not going to get anything like that the the titter that that the great Elliott Erwitt got with his I'm on a ferry in the Isle of Wight so we're talking about influences we are influenced by everything by other photographers work by music by by by movies that we see by advertising by by it doesn't matter what it is we're constantly being influenced and and it goes and then it goes it's all sitting there and then perhaps it's really really swen we're stimulated in some way that refinement this wasn't to set up but even if it was we might talk a little bit about choreography shortly but interestingly the you know how we whether we choreograph or photograph or whether we don't and and it is quite a manipulative business really I think in a way when it comes to engage involving people so here's a little tiny refinement you might have noticed and it's a small thing but it mattered to me I suddenly thought no I can't have that so I put it I put literally that little black slight slit in her in her gown and then and I rather wished I hadn't done that I'm not entirely comfortable and you and not for one moment I'm not suggesting that digital you know manipulating in images a crime of course it isn't it's an electronic darkroom it's wonderful and I just keep saying as long as we don't go too far because the viewer of the image and this is really important to say that it's the viewer of the image must trust it they must trust it if there's a sense of distrust they'll break the viewer the relationship between viewer and image will be broken and it can never be restored you know when you've lost a little bit of weight and the person who's commenting might put their head to one side and they might raise their voice a bit like wait it's quite complimenting you it's exactly like that if you've gone a little bit over with your saturation which you know in Arizona we often see and Joe knows this well enough and many of us do you go to that you know some of those marvelous slot canyons and you think they read enough wouldn't you do you really need to give Rory and what the hell and everyone says god I did really that red was the sky really not blue you know so when you're with a polarizer beware beware sensitive look through it first you know and decide if it's all blue or gosh you know so try and try and just restrain yourself from going crossing the line in any of those photoshop areas so that you deliver of an image to somebody that they never for a moment distrust or have misgivings about they just stand back and just say oh that's absolutely beautiful that's absolutely beautiful I love doing these things I chased two nuns in Siena for for fun and but a friend of mine came up with such a good observation he said supposing the arrow was pointing in the other direction how clever of him quickly moving on we're going to speed up a little bit to choreograph or not to choreograph and I think the key if people are just going to check my timing that's fine the key is with this sort of process if you like if you've got people in your landscape which which is fairly rare for me is to decide whether you do want to say could you are left a bit up a bit right a bit no could you just get a little bit closer there's something about then seeing the finished result where you feel yes you did engineer it but there's something rather lovely about the landscape photographer coming across something that is gifted to them or at least they can see the potential and then really and I keep saying is fully fully engaging with all that it has to offer you it's just the most wonderful thing and we all know that and all our speakers today I'm sure will come from the same standpoint so that this one was not choreographed but and the part of me feels better but I don't really know why it just feels better than that moving on the great Kurdish if you let's unravel a photograph let's unwrap a foot and ask ourselves what you know when we're looking at postcards we arrive I mean never forget arriving at a place and San Gimignano and I watched I had a cup of coffee I was waiting for someone I was there for about an hour amazing treat and opposite me was a cafe with a big lots of postcards available and I watched the people entering san gimignano coming up the hill and stopping at the first postcard rank and I also watch people could already experience the town coming down really fascinating I had already identified a photograph that I thought was marvelous and I just thought oh that's so well didn't he done and it completely told me what the marvelous this marvelous town was about san gimignano and every so often I noticed the owner of the shop probably three times while I was there coming out and replenishing that pile that particular slot where that particular postcard was and she just did everyone shows it it's been around I thought yeah I wonder which one you choose oh they stopped at that particular one and pause and yes out it comes into the shop to buy it I wish I could remember his name but I remember getting in touch with him and telling him about the car and he said I wished I hadn't given them exclusive rights and the ownership of the copyright in those days and he said I would have paid off my mortgage but just with that one image so let's look at the unraveling process why do I love this so much well I love it because I love the Hat yes we all do but it's a nice little arc on the hat then the nice little arc of the of the VARs and its accompanying shadow not being clipped by the edge of the frame and then the big player this marvelous balustrade which is really the big black statement and then another little arc there and then throughout this image to contrast with the arts are littered right angles and rectangles so absolutely beautifully crafted photograph and that's what we're doing well it's a crafting something well like an excellent woodworker we're like a we're like a person who's composing a piece of music the photograph isn't just a photograph it's right there with great symphonies and great paintings and great poems and great novels and great movies the still images as crucial to our lives as it ever was when it first started and we must try and stop saying and I and I have to quickly say thank you to photo speed for being part of this marvelous and at this marvelous event we have to stop doing these it's like a nervous tic oh where is it oh no so it must be must be that way and the viewer thinking oh my gosh you know I can I could we I can't really get it I can't really get it I've got a little expression going off-piste a little minute moment the print is the photographs rightful inheritance Joe Cornish a long time ago started up his gallery really trailblaze photography in met in many ways I have to salute you Joe for that he prints we must all print more and I'm not saying this for because photos speed are in the wrong we must print more because otherwise we're gonna have a whole load of the five terabyte external hard drives full of stuff and we're never going to get it out and the full engagement of a photograph the best way to receive all those lovely nuances and subtleties that we've invested into our photograph is to see it in print form so come on everybody let's let's take a leaf out of Tim's book and Jerry's book and many a photographer's let's exhibit let's work with charities if we don't have to make money from the prints then even better you're liberated from thinking oh god how much can I get you know it be prepared to run it at a bit of a loss but share our landscape photography and bottom line or should I say top line is share Beauty share Beauty and that's really the key so well done Kurdish and well done cutting in bristle Sifnos 1964 why do I love this so much the smallest element of the photograph is playing the most major role the most major role whereas our I go to Flora and it's sad really that in another part of the world there's a part of the photographic fraternity that likes to distrust and light-sensing rally did you know he put Cartier best I've got let you got her to run up and down lots and lots of times well I know now that it's not true because when I went to Sifnos some years ago guess who I met as I was waiting unbelievable I was standing there with my small group paying homage you know almost kneeling down and all of a sudden a lady and her child came came down and incredibly I I thought I just ask a quick perhaps for fun we could ask her child just to be there and she said well yes of course yes of course I'm Flores I'm Flores daughter and that's my granddaughter oh you mean your mum was that little child yes yes oh my word was a ha you know we all started being rather overwhelmed but let's look at why why if we unravel it what is it about this construction he's a wonderful thing cutting bits on did you know I'm pretty familiar with his work not all of it he's remembered probably for 20 images there are 12 you and you're doing well but 20 really strong images you know composers are perhaps remembered for 20 great symphonies poets and so on but what is it that makes this so compelling well for me it's her elbow I don't know why but it just is because that elbow sets the scene for the right angle the right angles 28 of them sorry it's a bit sad isn't it I've counted them oh no I'm in therapy for that as well and it's just such a beautiful orchestration of shapes and diagonals and triangles and rectangles and imagine if her knee had bumped into that wall and that shadow would have been very different color poor old color what were they saying in those new book New York galleries color well I think colour black and white were producing an image that we hope will return to us our response in a single still image that's all were asking so what was this all about in the lot in Ueno 5 or 10 years of 5 or 6 years ago I think it was about me feeling really depressed I had a really a two-day period a feeling rather depressed just check my time yeah and I felt right that's rather appealing does that suggest that kind of in some way embody my father rather low feeling of myself my low self-esteem so could it be that my my morale which was fairly low on that particular day it was Christmas Day actually could it be that I gravitated toward the lonely shed because effectively we are all lonely we are we are we're alone and you know we engage like we're doing now and it's just fantastic but essentially we are alone and we're you know we're battling through our lives dealing with all the things that we've got to deal with we won't linger too long on that but it could well be that our that our the feeling that we're experiencing on a particular day has a bearing on on on what we might photograph this is all conjecture you know no one can prove it but I like the sort of the lonely feel blossom why do I respond to blossom lots of people love blossom we all unblock them we love them lovely blossom tree it's a it's a miraculous magical thing so what do we want to do we want to produce a photograph that does have parity with what our resumen response is to blossom we do we do we just think oh gosh that's beautiful I wanted to make a photograph of it and that's why I still photographers and landscape photographers that's why we all are so like-minded people I'm sorry I'm getting more passionate but that's really what we're all talking about so why wouldn't I suddenly think oh my lord look at the Sierra Nevada in endl Athiya and this lovely line of blossom oh gosh that's absolutely beautiful amaz honor it I must get my camera and produce a photograph and I repeat and repeat and repeat that will have parity with my sense of complete and utter wonder the avenue of trees you know we all love a good Avenue of some made maybe not but I do remember being here and it was quite a funny little story some of you may know it looking back it was it was fun and and also rather sort of in a way but just showed how how sometimes I can get quite nervous and I set up here no color temperature will it would be autumn Sun low warm light amber absolutely everywhere no need to pump up anything exactly as it was set up for oh this is lovely what a graceful is to remember reminiscent of the name of a cathedral and so on and I thought Oh lovely right no no no one here and then I had a fat part of a little dish of okar and out came a man let's poke the friends obviously spoke he and my friends awful but he spoke excellent English and he said you are photographing my trees and I said I'm volunteer I'm so sorry I didn't realize that I didn't know that you were they were your trees he said no no no they are not my cheese but he said I've been passing history every day for 20 years on my way to work and I always say to myself one day I must make a photograph of these trees and now a bloody English man is photographing my trees and it was quite just amusing anyway I gave him a Polaroid in those days I here am i I'm gonna send myself up which is really necessary to do here am I saying I turned an in to end you know all that which I do believe but it's a bit of a lofty fanciful thing isn't it so I did and I thought I was attending an intending here and then I showed it to somebody a small group of people and I think was a brigadier in the back of the auditorium suddenly said damn fine bottle of Chardonnay they're in the background and I'd never noticed it so you know to hell with intended at end and all that so I've never seen it I was too preoccupied with making sure that trees aren't masking each other you know trying to get simsim achieved because you know symmetry asymmetry even by a millimetre means the I will immediately detect it that doesn't it walk into a room picture not quite level with the architrave just a quarter of a centimeter out you know for some people that do you mind if I just make that's driving me mad I just want to be able to change so the avenue of trees henry marsh came down with a friend and he that friend was a very distinguished man who had done for ten years enormous amount of research visiting 1,400 hospitals in the US he'd gone to the US and he'd been employed to do so to write a thesis to come up with them if you like an overview of whether the artwork in hospitals was appropriate to more favorable health outcomes and he visited lots and lots and lots of lots of hospitals as I say over a thousand and as a consequence he then wrote all about his experiences and Henry Marsh but this marvelous man who I'm slightly terrified of because he's so I nearly said so brainy I'm not right for a brain surgeon but he's just a completely magnetic personality and he'd poopoo all that but he came down with this marvelous research of Roger and they spent a day with me going through my photographs to choose some to go into the hospital the urn King George's and George's in Tooting and which Henry calls Center Beasley's and because he feels it's not conducive the common areas in the hospital and not in any way conducive to encouraging people to feel better give them those less pain relief and so on and just generally up their morale reduce less you know instill less fear it was pretty nasty and he wanted you know knowing that you might be operated on your brain I mean doesn't bear thinking about so he wanted some photographs a landscape photographs not paintings are not abstract not multiple exposures which we're not going to be into and I think they're marvelous when they're right and awful when they're wrong but in my judgment not not anything other than just a straightforward many people might say rather literal decorative eye candy but images that uplift people which are our landscape photographs hopefully will do so he chose oh my god he dismissed more than he chose no no no to this one Henry I rather like this one in the song no Charlie lovely but imprisonment that one I'll have that one well fairly obvious light at the end of the tunnel but there he wanted images that made people feel better so no not a lot of not even for a moment and he he probably chose I think about twelve and dismissed maybe a hundred use attendin intend another sending up of myself really important to do that showed it to somebody said marvelous they said that's absolutely lovely I love that it's going uphill like the keys on a piano good grief I never saw that smack wrist charlie never noticed that never thought that it was going uphill so it's it's really it's really important I think to to be prepared to you know be very humble and when somebody says they love a photograph it is is pretty nice isn't it when people say that then it's always a slightly unsettling when they as I said a little bit earlier when they see something that one didn't see oneself and the salm area past these cheese thought oh that's lovely cold and warm together that's a guarantee I don't want to say it's about being formulaic but nevertheless if you were to walk down the street in canary yellow and cornflower blue trousers or skirt there's a very strong chance that eyes would turn because you know complementary colors brow free so between the two and the others as well so blue and cold and cold and and warm but there was something wrong and I realize what it was but only when I came back I realized that it needed these little bounce it needed this separation from reality to reflection or reflection to reality in it it needed just that and I and I was really glad just a couple of inches made a big difference top light most landscape photographers we all say no no no top light I want to be I want have rate side light I remember from once I encroached into Jays territory in Yorkshire and I measured the highlight sorry the shadow from a wall at midday well there was hardly any it was hardly any shadow if anything on a dry stone wall but I passed by later on in the day when this when the light was going down and mid June and the shadow had gone to something like this Jay will be familiar with this enough it's something like a hundred feet or more I mean just phenomenal but top light not popular but top light was necessary here because these little shadows when I passed by came back later they were bumping into each other and so that coherence was suddenly missing so do investigate shadows shadows players greater role in an in any foot as any other part of the photograph you know shadows have got to go to either they've either got to make themselves clear or they've got to be dealt with her they've got to be understood and their and the way they contribute to the main overview of the of them of the image is absolutely pivotal for some reason this photograph is incredibly popular I like it but for some reason it does sort of transport people to a place that they that they like to be into and perhaps another dimension and you know landscape photographs one loves it we all love it when we sell a photograph or when anybody just says they love it we've already discussed that but for some reason this is really popular and it's nothing that I feel oh yes it well done Charlie you produce a an image that's really popular it was I hate to say it was serendipity I much prefer intentionality than serendipity but we all know that sometimes serendipity and I often think it's my mum saying I'll get the cows to be in his picture because when I first arrived they weren't there they were here and I hung around for a bit thinking oh gosh they're not very nice weather gosh and suddenly they started slowly ambling along and they deposited themselves right in front of me but some of them have got six legs unfortunately and some are a bit lumpy but this one I remember him well decided to come and investigate me I've never really pleaded with the cow pretty much I don't think I ever have but I did find myself saying go back please go back just go back and amazingly it went back to this spot and it seemed to work quite well and in a sudden marvellous little bit of light made it green that that water and I'm sure many of us know that moving on a bit quicker the lonely tree the lonely tree who can resist a lonely tree you see it's nobility its stateliness you find suddenly it's it's expressing itself it's not got any others to compete with it mark does marvellous images where they're a collection of and many of us do but Marx in particular lovely with his marvellous collection as of different cheese all expressing themselves I find being in a forest difficult and I can't get a sense of order so the lonely tree the cypress tree in Tuscany the tree in that many of you may know this in butter Mia and what what I'm really love about the lonely tree and we all love them don't we was that in this case it was lovely to be able to orchestrate the lighting a little bit of a ladder sometimes I like to use just get me up a couple of feet no really you know huge thing don't need a drone or anything marvellous no they are not anti drones although perhaps than audios a little bit infuriating and I was very glad that I had a bit of height because I could maintain that stop that encroaching into the a diagonal slope and managed them to do what landscape photographs do tend to to need and many of us do it really well terribly well which is to introduce a sense of depth to mitigate the two-dimensional nature of landscape photography little bit of depth really does help and that can be done usually with lighting or can be done with orchestrating the shapes and that the design of the image so that people feel yep this is nearer than that to me and then a little bit of good fortune is that this the slope of that is pretty much in keeping with the slope of that so when you unravel a photograph it's a it's a really enjoyable thing to do and I urge you to do this ask yourself why do I love this instead of just saying it's lovely let's look at the the the composition and that's really what we're doing and many people find composition elusive and I'm one of them sometimes I think I'm really feeling this but I can't I can't get it I can't grapple with it and I went on a workshop some time ago where are all in his six minutes left where I was with a group and which is always enjoyable and an American photographer dermatologist I remember him now saying Charlie how do I get all of that into this I can't do it I can't do it so he turned and photographed a dandelion but when we saw the finished result everyone said oh my gosh whose was that and it was the divine little retort stand mirrors reflectors little bit of silver paper and produced a photograph of a dandelion it wasn't had underline anymore it was a thing of beauty absolute beauty and everyone just went oh my word and he turned to me he said Charlie I could manage that you see I could manage that I couldn't handle it was too cumbersome too overwhelming I'm gonna go fast oh I could have cursed the farmer for not making these lines right so that they could exited the corners of the frame in the way that I would have liked and yes number of people have said oh come on Charlie couldn't you have just moved the camera a little bit I tried I really did try and to maintain the chi where it was anyway it was its it always reminds me of what a lovely time I had there quite perverse I think in a landscape that is essentially about the horizontal to do a skyscraper as some people call them but the Orient that's very common isn't it I'm not very familiar with oriental art and I'm sure many of you will have an understanding greater than mine but I did think it was rather odd and yet when you when you stack it up it seems to work quite well Monty ovh out there which churn I know very well and many of you do I'm sure the clump many of you will know the clump I remember being there in the early 80s and thinking how lovely it was and then I'm such bad weather and suddenly I remember being I was sheltering under a bit of black polythene and the black polythene started getting warmer and I felt my gosh the sun's coming out and it was and suddenly slammed onto the foreground landscape and suddenly it was thrilling and one day I remember talking to Joe we both hate the word impacts or you know a drama because they don't seem to be fitting really that those sort of terms to use for a landscape but it really was absolutely thrilling I can certainly use that term Lake Titicaca mum I'm sure was there organizing things for me I found this I had a 617 camera always odd that everybody asked me why not 618 or Paula from lindenhof Studios down in in Essex will say well of course because you couldn't get four on a roll of 120 so it had to be 617 so 6:17 wonderful thing only for maybe eight if you've got 220 so I had it set up and then I thought I've got no height I've got no height and I and I realized that I had to get this this was there this was there because it was quite close and I said the little tiny school and I ran into the school I said quick is any chance I could have your anything I could stand on and four children came with the teacher with a desk and I stood on the desk and they were holding it and I had the blessed camera and it was just completely lovely moment and then I realized oh I've got nothing I've got nothing else you know you can't have a role of you can't have a panoramic where which is sort of an eventful just you know in just one item sort of good I suppose but it needed support and then my mother brilliantly enter boat blue sail same colors lake titikaka enter stage left fantastic thank you mom oh and by the way dribbling along no wind until finally it cleared the reeds got to there suddenly God give Charlie some wind puffy wind comes up triangle two triangles another triangle reflection god bless my mother absolutely marvelous I know I know absolutely convinced Tuscany everyone will know Tuscany well I say everyone will know it not necessarily been there but and it's it's still lovely even though very many more photographers now go there and they will have done before I went when I went in the 80s and and Joe and I went you know there weren't so many people but it can still be relished you have to have rain the night before if it's when you fly in to Pisa and you drive down to sing critic or that sort of area it's got to be raining because there hopefully then you'll have your miss I'm going to speed up a little bit there are times where you just think I haven't really embraced Tuscany as I really would love to I can't I can't produce a photograph that really encapsulates my feeling that this is a you know like stepping into a Renaissance painting and by the way when a lot of people I know one person when somebody says I love your photograph it's just like a painting it's you know I and he says I snot it's not a painting it's a photograph I think it's being a bit pernickety if somebody says it's just like a painting that's pretty nice isn't it or some people might say ever painting is just like a photograph so we we must get over ourselves and not be too you know all we want to do is to produce a landscape photograph that that has parity with what we feel and that expresses our sense of wonder which I keep repeating Namibia thank you Joe again I'm talking about you or not Jay one time really marvelous went to there and had a guide from Yorkshire interestingly she'd been a guide in Africa for about 20 25 years and I said can you take me to the most beautiful place in all of Africa and she said yes I'll take you to the most beautiful place in Namibia and I know all of that for cut pretty much but this for me is one of the loveliest places and and we drove in the dark and when we got there when the dawn came up this marvelous knife-edge shadow there lasted such a short time and the relationship between that little thing there and that and the sky and it was completely and utterly wonderful and just to relish a being be part of and I asked her what's the distance from there to there she's at 12 miles phenomenal we're going to go really fast now trees in the durian who can resist lovely buttercups and trees with the same color just on their early spring leaves coming up the the ladders quite handy because in a way I was glad I had it and it was only as small as I say two feet up but it allowed me to separate the top of those reeds from there so that just a little bit of elevation but sometimes there I am revealing more than concealing sometimes you want to conceal more than reveal and sometimes we want to go right left up a bit do you explore don't it's very easy just to say oh that's that's lovely I've got a phase I've got a Nikon d80 I've got a subletter whatever it is that's lovely what just pointed at it I wish it was like that I sometimes think I wish cameras had a little tiny voice and it said Charlie this is a masterpiece do it but it regret ibly it doesn't we have to make that decision and we have to engage ourselves but let's really immerse ourselves as deeply as we can possibly get into the whole landscape photograph image making process once a Victoire why did he apparently go back to more semi twice is an over 40 times and paint it check time Oh gonna have to really speed up he did it because he perhaps felt he hadn't quite got it a little pyrenees scene that my mother again was accompanying me on a book and she said don't worry it'll stop raining we go around the next corner we'll find something and she was right and rather fond of this I don't quite know why perhaps cuz I can hear the splintering of the rock who knows Dolomites moving on the big view quatre idris near barmouth must finish on time Palouse a good place to go the police I'm sure many of you will know it in Washington state we Glee things round things near me win Green sort of amphitheater feel rather nice to as I say earlier maintain look at the clouds orchestrate them and get friendly with the clouds that's so helpful please come on come on come on just just subdue that back area to pronounce the amphitheater feel and clouds are so friendly if you really you know you know make friends with them nearly there another view an amphitheater feel and our British landscape is completely marvelous if we if we can just get over the hedges and treat ourselves to a day a week if we can and I need to tell myself this just to get out perhaps without a map explore lanes and little roads that you've never been to that might just be down the road from you part of the Dolomites and northern Italy extraordinary phenomena very very strange place indeed nearly there so delight rock in speaker blitz in Namibia a nice pleasing relationship between sky and and the rock broken video petals on a swimming pool a little bit of wind just helped to make it a little bit more interesting reads in the Hebrides rather nice relationship I thought between the cold and the warm winter's coming do photograph in the winter it's a wonder we don't always has to be snow it's gonna do - just get out in the winter even if it's if they when the forecast says it's changeable that's such a good time to go because they don't really know what's going to happen and so really enjoyable reads oh gosh can I I wished I'd had more as clouds filling that space but sadly not in the Camargue hails hails of bayonetta shed nearly said bales of hay thankfully a ladder just to separate the belly of the cloud intersecting with the top of that bale which it was I was thankful for China very difficult for me completely out of my comfort zone didn't really know what to do so I had to go little comic scene in Lincolnshire quite fun I like this because I like the integration of it I like all the shapes and it was just really good to spend a day there just drinking it in and this sort of gully here I enjoy that one pop pass because it's really quite recent doormats near me in Cranbourne Chase was speeding up because we've got to finish really in the next minute do go out as I said if it's changeable gosh I could curse the farmer why didn't he oh that's rather interesting another one of those why didn't the farmer extend that hedge that's so faultless in in consider it's bit like airline pilots why on earth can't they just not do this strictly white meats which masquerade is high cirrus we've seen that all she drape and flax and the farmer said you profited from my era he said I'm I'm the laughingstock of the whoops a farming community because I planted the oil seed rape too late and it's come up next to the flax and I didn't want to do that so he said you'll never see it again back to the Palouse coming to the end this was before the you know the good great tents toppers that is very popular at the moment that I find rather interesting perhaps we make sometimes it makes it look a little bit over engineered then it's an impossibly difficult place to photograph but do go I really found it difficult little gate no there was no Sun but when it suddenly the Sun appeared it made all the difference and it lasted probably about 15 seconds so do if you've established the shapes and the design and all the component parts that seemed to fit so well but you just want a little bit of that you know that great conduit don't always have to have it but you want hard light then just have a little peep and wait and if you it's no pressure you just hopefully it'll happen more shapes and and relationships and the cold and the warm seemed to work quite well in Tenerife and in again in in Libya I meant remember thinking something's wrong and I opened the door and then it something suddenly was right and I managed to make the little the shadows interlock and exit in the right place quite a popular little place now that was hidden away in those days called Luciano just rather pleasing and soft gentle little image this isn't my work I just photographed somebody else's magnificent work magnificent that's all I was saying it's a record photograph of something else that was absolutely beautifully done in Mayan ma waiting for this lady waiting for her to get into the right position I must say I miss a member thinking brush it this way brush it that way that was her half to her house and finally she got herself in the right right position Cadiz endless endless sort of thinking what I this needs animating and then very friendly seagull came along to see his Chum or her Chum and luckily it was at the right altitude and delivered this little shadow in the right place I'm having a little foray with some rather strange images but rather strange landscapes but I'm enjoying really a lot it's I'm slightly out of my comfort zone but I'm enjoying exploring and and they were sort of quite well together really as it as a sort of a cheer sometimes textures you know another bit of a departure for me it's not a landscape child it's just textures lonely boat in China spending a lot of time thinking oh gosh where am I going to put it then I thought I'll just I'll just try and get it to talk to that tree in some way and it did seem to work quite well somebody said this would work quite well as are covered to an opera opera a catalog for a lot do look at water and look at the cold and the warm and look at relationships of color you know sometimes I'm I find it elusive it landscape photography is hard isn't it it's quite a struggle doesn't it's not always oh yes easy peasy it's it's like great Kennedy we're going to the moon not because it's easy because it's hard and I think we like struggle and it's important that insecurity should accompany a degree of insecurity should accompany any artistic endeavor my three doggies and a ridiculous sky that just by chance so glad I took a little camera with me the last five now a little departure going to back of a church in in Greece Libya Tripoli a mausoleum staircases and just that's exactly the color of it and I really enjoyed it was usually enjoyed it just the relationships a little humorous why not why not you can't resist it sometimes we all use our phones and everything else and my doggie and that was exactly the color Staffordshire Bull Terrier who I completely in love with and who's called tank because he is reminiscent of a tank and my daughter's dog Mable and just love photographing doggies and finally a more long time ago the juror in France and I think this encapsulated really encapsulates what we're all here for is that the the landscape does stimulate us unbelievably doesn't it unbelievably we have to own it we have to earn it wholeheartedly repeating myself again and the manifestation of that beautiful beautiful exchange that beautiful relationship that we have with beauty is to be found within the print or the image that we made of it and I think that's really bottom line what it is so that when we produce a photograph it does have parity with what we felt and we are able with by looking at that photograph it evokes the experience that we had at the time and hopefully informs and illuminates and awakens the people who look at it thank you very much [Applause] Charlie great to see you we've really enjoyed what a fantastic tokenized I said earlier a tour de force of photography but your energy and enthusiasm and passion it made a great kickoff for the conference so thank you so much for that well thank you very much Jeff such complimentary remarks I think one thing I particularly say was it was such a joy for me to see new work and old work together because I mean many of those images that you showed us our favorites icons of color photography from the 80s and 90s but you're also showing us a much of her new work now and yeah would you like to talk a little bit about it yes I would I think one of the things I realized that most of us are doing is what I call having a go we're trying to stretch ourselves creatively and I think if we do respond to something that hitherto we haven't responded to or even noticed perhaps then we might as well try and interpret it as you know as best we as best we can so I'm feeling appropriately a little insecure about that let new work but there's a little voice in me that says it's okay you know but I haven't it's um it's a bit like moving to a new house I'm not entirely fully comfortable in it but I'm hoping I will become so and I'm responding more I'm beginning to respond more to some architectural features in buildings and so on they give me a lot of pleasure aesthetically well I think that I look back at your work over the years I'm lucky enough to have known your work for 40 years now and and I've always been inspired by it but you have a unique eye for form and for space and in many ways though architecture is a natural area for you to explore because of that you have it clearly you look at your landscapes and many of them have a kind of orderly quality you respond to the grace of of ordered elements in the inner landscape and I feel that that's the the the the special atmosphere that you're able to see which is also a lighting attribute is it it just seems to be to do a lot of it to do with form and space and and hence I think why you're so comfortable with with those kinds of elements I wonder where that desire to if you like capitalise on you know spatial relationships and order comes from it could be as simple as being a very untidy person I mean it may well be that I learn to be tidy and better organized in fact my office is a complete tip and so and I'm really really an untidy person nothing is in the right place my desktop is in a complete jumble but when I'm out in the landscape I absolutely have to have precision arrangements design everything has got to be completely and utterly right well the same could be said of your work obviously but you you and I can identify with that need to orchestrate our photograph so that it is tight and it does absolutely reek of just order and precision and design so that it when we see the finished result we we feel satisfied but what but but at home I simply can't do that that's the real interesting insight I was I was very taken by a bite that kind of there were many sub current themes in your in your talk but the one that particularly resonated for me was the idea of beauty and and that photography as landscape photographers predominantly the the pursuit of beauty or the the search for beauty is something that is continuous ongoing and and and Universal and it's a universal desire for for probably well it feels for most landscape photographers and I think back to the work of photographers who whose what might appear to be about things have pain and suffering but often the element of beauty is still there I think of Simon Norfolk whose work you might know and his photographs are magnificent and there are often of war-torn landscapes that say but the way he sees still encapsulate spew tea and to me that concept which you you kept coming back to was just it is ever-present and vital love - it really is in a way I think it's our lifeblood and I think there are many people we just met somebody a moment ago who-who said I'm not a photographer but and I think I replied but yes you are you just don't make photographs so I think our responsibility is really multifaceted and we when it comes to responding I'm I'm really really keen to try and ensure that our response is delivered back to ourselves in you know enough in a manner in which we can then feel that it's it's an how can I put it well it really it it is a it is almost a perfect parallel between our human response our emotional response and a finished result and it's so easy for it to fall short of that expectation and and we and it and it can do so so is so easily I'm sad that beauty is not a trend it's not a trend I'm very very sad that that photography is perhaps not seen as it should be I think it's better than it than it ever than it was but in the u.s. we both know that it is but perhaps not in the way that we might like I'm looking for beauty in photography to be more greatly acknowledged and and I'd love to see more galleries in Regent Street and Oxford Street and you know central right in the heart of cities where we share and what we've produced amongst the people and so I think it's really important to try and do that because we will be better for it definitely and I think the the wealth I mean it's a favorite topic of mine is the sort of urban critics view of the world which often seems to exclude the idea of beauty but I mean you you you use the term that we discussed in the past if I can di I'd the reason that I use that term if I can bring you back to that was that somebody wants describe my work as eye candy did and it's I've never forgotten I found it it was so depressing that that was their view and I also feel that I mean it was a good thing for me in a way it made me think more deeply about the about whether something is about decoration or about something deeper than that and that's certainly important I think that the that the the essence for me or beauty comes from nature and so that's where I constantly return to to discover it new so it's great to see your work because this is much more how can I put it human interaction in your photographs thing you find Charmin and vitality in those human landscapes as well which is great to see one more thing I wanted to say because I think this is so crucial is you talked about a parity of experience translating translating the experience from the eye in the brain into into the photograph is is the key isn't it ongoing mystery ongoing mystery I couldn't know you put it really well just a recently I read a lovely line from John John Keats poet where he said he wants to take the greater part in the existence of things and I think photography doesn't do as many people like to suggest it does separate you from the experience it actually engages you so profoundly into the relationship between you and nature and man's effect on the landscape and and it is really really really important I think from I think for more people to photograph I do because I think it's a wonderful therapy it makes you perhaps I really do believe it makes you see in a more front and profound and deeper way certainly doesn't separate you from the history it's well in fact totally the opposite I think it's about connect to connect create connection and because we when we go out with our cameras we we deliberately looking to see and if that makes sense and and really the that process is as you say it's immensely therapeutic I often think that as it as work leaders it's one of our main roles is to encourage people to simply connect to connect with the world around them and to experience the the value of of our relationship with nature I need to try to restore that relationship yes which is so deeply broken by a political and social system it is it is and technology has got in the way you're right we're all wandering around looking at our iPhones bumping into people yes I agree with you wholeheartedly although the iPhone is actually a very good oh that's very nice thank you for our little chat well it's great it's all great to see you and Charlie thank you so much again for an absolutely magnificent and inspirational beginning to the conference i bless you thank you

Channel: On Landscape

Views: 89,369

Keywords: +charlie waite, +landscape photography, +photography, +compostion, +digital photography, +nature photography, +outdoor photography

Id: bbUmjkhjjZ0

Length: 79min 43sec (4783 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 18 2018