Tag : landscape

20 Mar 2023

Another time

Working on short videos with my friend & favourite artist Doug Selway made me think again about the concept of time in photographs. My Dust & Shadow project is all about time. It takes the artefacts of the recent past – in this case, fortifications dating back to World War 2 – and treats them as though they are mysterious monuments from a forgotten time. I’m interested in the way we – as a culture or a society – suffer […]

Dust & Shadow / Projects / The Silent Museum 0

17 Nov 2021

Less is more

I’m finding, with my landscape photography, that I’m increasingly drawn to a minimalist approach. Sometimes to the point of abstraction. It’s not necessarily about simplicity. Some images can be very busy. It’s more about honing in on one thing. Landscape photography is not just about the grand vistas and dramatic scenery. That has its place, for sure. But if you have a dramatic scene in front of you, then getting a dramatic picture takes very little skill or effort. What […]

Photography 0

16 Nov 2021

Breton grey

The title of this post might sound like an expensive new shade of paint from Farrow & Ball. What it’s actually about is finding beauty in even the apparently dullest light. It’s hardly a surprise to be met with overcast skies in Brittany in November. But there is a richness in that light, too. Ignore those people who tell you that landscape photography is all about shooting during ‘Golden Hour’. Flat, grey light has a stillness that can be, at […]

Photography / Pic of the week 1

21 Nov 2019

Nine years after

This is a shot taken on a recent trip to Brittany. I’m pleased with it – which is just as well because it took me nine years to get it. These are the remains of a pier or jetty sticking out into the Rade de Brest – the confluence of several rivers where they meet the Atlantic. It’s shot from the shore of the Crozon peninsula, a beautifully rugged part of Finistère. I was attracted to these pillars because of […]

Behind the Image / Dust & Shadow / Photography 0

15 Feb 2019

New book: Finistère Insolite

At last, my new book is here. Finistère Insolite (Exceptional Finistère) is a collection of 133 images across 100 pages exploring the wildness, vastness and serenity of, for me, Brittany’s most spectacular department. The photographs were shot over the course of the past few years, with all of the visits having been made during Autumn – a time when Brittany is relatively empty of people and even more ruggedly beautiful. Publishing this book was an educational experience. Having spent my whole […]

Projects 0

05 Sep 2018

Pic of the week: Poplar plantation

There’s something about poplar plantations that appeals to me. It has to do, I think, with their monumental appearance. I took these pictures on a bike ride we took down to towpath of the Mayenne river, which snakes down through the department of the same name in the Pays de la Loire region of France. The towpath has been converted into a voie verte (greenway) for walkers and cyclists. You can read more about the ride and the river on our […]

Pic of the week 0

28 Aug 2018

Pic of the week: Rouvre oak

I wasn’t expecting to get anything on this trip. Trish & I went out for the day just to explore. An hour down the road is an area known as the Suisse Normande, a hilly part of Normandy on the Orne/Calvados border that is cut into rocky ravines by a number of rivers. One of those rivers is the Rouvre and I’ve decided that I want to use it as the basis for a photography project (about which I’ll be […]

Pic of the week 0

20 Dec 2017

Behind the image: waiting for the right moment

Sometimes you have an idea for an image in your head. But when your subject matter is the landscape, nature doesn’t always cooperate.

Behind the Image 0

31 Jul 2017

La vache normande: part of the landscape

At the vernissage of my exhibition with sculptor Sue Riley, L’Esprit Insolite, I was momentarily left speechless by an unexpected request.

Exhibitions / L'Esprit Insolite / Photography 0

11 Jul 2017

Behind the image: Brume, Landévennec, Finistère

This is a continuation of yesterday’s post because this image was shot on the same foggy morning. Having shot a number of photographs of a very bare and simply landscape, I turned my attention to the trees lining one of the several rivers that feed into this estuary. One of my reasons for this is that this is a scene not entirely devoid of mankind’s presence. If you squint very hard you’ll see some boats moored at the river’s opening. […]

Behind the Image / Exhibitions / L'Esprit Insolite / Photography 0

10 Jul 2017

Behind the image: L’aube, Landévennec, Finistère

Sometimes you look out of the window, see the weather and think, ‘there has to be a picture waiting for me’. That’s what happened here.

Behind the Image / Exhibitions / L'Esprit Insolite / Photography 0

09 Jul 2017

Behind the image: Nuit tombante, Pentrez, Finistère

We stopped here just to give the dog a run. We’d been out exploring the Finistère coast all day and, with the light fading, had decided to head back to the gîte. But our old dog Zola needed to stretch his legs. We threw the ball for him a few hundred times (so it seemed), and just as we were all feeling tired and eager to get back in the car, nature decided to put on a show. Now I […]

Behind the Image / L'Esprit Insolite / Photography 0

08 Jul 2017

Behind the image: Maïs, St-Siméon, Orne

Of all the images in the exhibition, L’Esprit Insolite, this has the simplest story. And it’s another of those ‘always carry a camera’ moments. It was a beautiful day in September. We drove to the nearby town of St-Fraimbault, mainly to walk the dog around the lake (he does so love to go for a swim), and also to take a look at the damage wrought by recent storms. Our bit of Normandy had taken something of a battering. I […]

Behind the Image / L'Esprit Insolite / Photography 0

07 Jul 2017

Behind the image: Cavaliers, Le Bec d’Andaine, Mont St Michel

Le Bec d’Andaine is strange, as beaches go. It’s at the base of the Cotentin peninsula, on the west coast of the Normandy department of the Manche. It has a fine view of Mont St Michel. And the beach is wide and spacious. Very wide. Maybe too wide. In fact, in the many times we’ve visited the Bec d’Andaine we’ve rarely had a proper glimpse of the sea. This is La Baie du Mont St Michel and it has some […]

Behind the Image / L'Esprit Insolite 0

06 Jul 2017

Behind the image: Verger, St-Siméon, Orne

They say that familiarity breeds contempt. It can also make you blind to what’s right on your doorstep. This is also a lesson about always making time to grab that photograph. It was early in the morning. I had the car loaded with filmmaking gear and was on my way to start work on the first day of shooting a short film, Cigarette. Making films, even amateur ones like ours, is a complex and exhausting endeavour, so my mind was […]

Behind the Image / L'Esprit Insolite 0

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