Gallery Notes - Light for Light's Sake
Most amateur photographers tend to think of landscapes simply as objects to be photographed. They tend to forget that they are never photographing an object, but rather light itself. Where there is no light, they will have no picture; where there is remarkable light, they may have a remarkable picture
- Galen Rowell, 1986, Mountain Light
Rowell's quotation speaks from experience that matches my own. I am well aware how natural landforms can have intrinsic interest, geographically, geologically, topographically. But landforms are transformed by light into landscapes - pictures of the land to be experienced visually. Light can be fleeting and dramatic, soft and subtle, dynamic and fast. Photographing the light can demand patience and fast response, planning and intuition. It requires the photographer to be tuned in to approaching changes, immersed in the mountain experience.
In whatever form light is for me the essence of landscape photography.
This collection represents perhaps my favourite images from twenty-five years work, and I'm pleased to select them from locations in the United Kingdom, whose mountains lack the stature of other ranges but, by the nature of the British climate, can match any mountains in the world for drama, colour and atmosphere.
