Pure Landscape – Nothing But Nature
Throughout my portfolio you will find images that I like to call “pure landscape” – which for me is the holy grail of landscape photography – nothing in the image but what nature has provided: no man-made intrusion, no houses, no roads, no cars and no people. An image that could have been taken a 100,000 years ago long before Nicéphore Niépce first captured the roof from his window.
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With the only interest coming from the shape of a rock or the crash of a wave or the idle of clouds on a mountaintop. It could be a shaft of sunlight piercing through sullen skies, peat bogs untouched by man or spade, wild grass bent double by wind and rain, or reflected reeds in untroubled waters.
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A lot of my popular landscape work would have a specific point of interest, something the viewer can relate to – this could be a boat or a cottage or a donkey or a horse (and very often, sheep!), occasionally a car, and even sometimes people – something common that gives meaning and perspective, an easy way for people to relate to an image, establishing what I call the heart of the image. Take the heart away and it becomes much harder to give life to a photograph.
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That’s what makes “pure landscape” so elusive and hard to find – trying to bring life to an image without an obvious heart. Without a central subject, we then focus on everything, therefore everything is important and we must consider each corner of the canvas because the viewer will be looking at the whole image when there is no focal point to steal their attention away.
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