I have long been an advocate of ‘working’ a subject – in other words taking time to explore different compositions of what is essentially the same subject. I don’t wish to assume that the first choice of viewpoint and lens selection will make the best photograph. The temptation of course can be to pursue the obvious and then walk away believing the job is done.
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Winter can be a rather bleak time of year. The days are short and the weather is often a combination of wind and rain, cold frosty nights and occasionally snow. There are also days when blue skies return and the sun shines, which serves as a reminder that Spring may not be too far away. As a prelude to these clear bright interludes, the start of the day is often heralded by cool, misty or foggy mornings. I love these conditions for making images.
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In the past two weeks I have given a talk on black and white photography at a couple of camera clubs in my region. The presentation is called ‘Me and My Mono’. The first half is an eclectic mix of monochrome images from a variety of genres which have been taken over a number of years; from the time I switched from ‘colour’ to ‘black and white’ right up until the current day. The second half of the talk is about my approach to photographic projects both short and long term and the results and satisfaction that can be enjoyed by making bodies of work.
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All artists and that includes photographers, suffer from periods when their creative juices slow down or cease to flow. Enthusiasm for their art wanes. Finding inspiration to make new work is in short supply. I feel that I have been in that space for a little while now. Slowly but surely though I sense things are beginning to change.
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During a recent visit to Northumberland I visited Harthope Valley in The Cheviot Hills. It reminded me of Fay Godwin who is one of my favourite photographers. She was famed for her black and white photographs of the British Landscape as well as being a very fine portrait photographer.
Below is a short extract from an obituary published in The Daily Telegraph on May 30th 2005.
‘Fay Godwin, who died on Friday aged 74, was the foremost landscape photographer in Britain, and also collaborated with the poet Ted Hughes, going on to produce portraits of other writers; her insight into the British countryside, which led her to be compared with the great American photographer Ansel Adams, was also her recreation, and she was president of the Ramblers’ Association from 1987 until 1990.
Her photographs, which captured the differing moods and textures of moors, forests and country trails with a remarkable sensitivity and lack of sentimentality, were mostly produced in black and white, but with an extraordinary tonal range’.
alan frost photography 