alan frost photography

Inspired by J M W Turner – a Cathedral from the canal

The painting below is by J M W Turner. Alongside Thomas Gainsborough and John Constable he must be one of the finest and most loved landscape painters England has ever produced. Turner stayed at Petworth House in West Sussex and during his time there he painted Chichester Canal with the Cathedral in the background – circa 1829. It’s a familiar scene to me and I thought it would lend itself to my own impressionistic treatment using a camera instead of paints.

Owned by the Tate Gallery and on display in Petworth House in Sussex.

Cathedral impressions – a return to ICM

Back in April I experimented with the technique of ICM or intentional camera movement. Setting a slow shutter speed and then moving the camera in a random way to create the photograph. This technique produces a result which is arguably more akin to a piece of art than a photograph. That’s not to say that photography isn’t an art form. In my opinion it most definitely is, and the camera is simply the ‘paintbrush’, the creative tool to make an image which reflects your own personal vision or impression of the subject you wish to portray.

Wandering around Plodda Falls – a complete break from news and social media.

Recent posts of my work have featured on The Outer Hebrides – The islands of Lewis and Harris. On our way to these rather special islands we stayed in the Scottish Highlands at a place called Plodda Falls. Situated to the south of Glen Affric, the nearest village is Tomich, whilst the main town of Inverness is about 35 miles to the North East at the northern end of Loch Ness; famous of course for it’s most elusive monster!

Photographs which ask questions – ‘Inscapes’ the work of Simon Roberts.

In the past few weeks I have been enjoying processing and posting images from my recent trip to Scotland. Almost without exception they are photographs of dramatic and stunningly beautiful scenery. Images which immediately attract attention and have the potential to be ‘liked’ on Instagram and other social media platforms. Whilst they might be very pleasing to the eye it could be argued they lack any real engagement on the part of the viewer. In other words this style of image doesn’t raise questions. There is no story or mystery, everything is there for all to see. It’s great to look at but there it stops. It could be almost be described as one dimensional.

Why is any of this relevant? Let me explain.