Paul Sanders | alan frost photography

A Still retreat – a mindful approach to creative photography with Paul Sanders

I have recently returned from arguably the best photographic workshop I have ever attended. I could stop there but let me explain my reasons for why I feel this way and share with you some of the images I made.

The workshop, or to use the correct term, retreat, was organised and run by Paul Sanders of Discover Still. I first met Paul a number of years ago when I heard him give an inspiring talk at Fotofest in Bath. He explained how being the Picture Editor for The Times drove him to the grip of depression before leaving that role in 2011 and turning to landscape photography. On the ‘About’ page of his website he states:

‘I traded noise and materialism for something far more precious: peace.’

The idea of attending one of his retreats only came to me a few weeks ago. Reading its description appealed to me on several levels. Firstly a holiday in a beautiful quiet location, staying in a manor house and enjoying the food prepared by a private chef. Secondly the opportunity to meet like minded photographers and to be inspired by them. Thirdly and out of choice, to have a complete break from all television, news, social media and any of life’s other distractions. And lastly to be encouraged and motivated by a facilitator who’s images I greatly admire and who I thought would adopt a very different approach to the concept of a photographic workshop. This was not about rushing to one ‘honeypot’ photo location, taking a few pictures, then moving on to the next destination trying to find the tripod holes left by the previous group of image makers. The retreat was based at The Stewardry on The Boconnoc Estate in Cornwall and there we would stay for the duration.

On the evening we arrived Paul explained that each participant could take things at their own pace, going to out to photograph when ever they wanted, or just stopping and being quiet to take in the sights, sounds, smells and feel of the nature around us. He made it clear that it was only by giving ourselves permission to stop, look around, touch and listen that our minds would begin to absorb nature and in so doing images might reveal themselves to us.

He reminded us of a quote by the American Photographer Minor White –

‘Be still with yourself until the object of your attention affirms your presence.’

The future of photography and in particular the print – discuss.

This could be an exam question or even a topic for a university thesis, or more simply a discussion between a group of photographers over a drink in the pub one evening.

On Sunday I attended Foto Fest 2017 at Bath University, an event hosted by Fotospeed – a company providing a wide variety of photographic papers, some of which I use for my own images. There were four excellent professional photographers talking about their work (Martin Hartley, Paul Sanders, Ben Hall and Colin Prior) all of which were truly inspiring.

At the end of the afternoon Sam Gregory of Togcast hosted a question and answer session with the four speakers giving their views on various topics. The subject of this entry was one of the topics raised by Sam. There wasn’t time to do the question justice, let alone involve the audience. I am also aware it’s a hotly debated subject in photography circles. As no one can really predict the future, I thought I would pitch in with my own personal view. It’s probably an opinion shared by others but I hope you will read on.