Seeing the Light

I don’t often write about my work for two reasons.  The first is that photography is  essentially a visual medium that, in my opinion, should not require a written essay to contextualise, understand, or appreciate;  and second is that it runs the risk of sounding patronising or pretentious. I am of the opinion that my images are for the viewers to interpret, and I can only hope they feel something of what I feel about them.

Landscape and seascape photography is my meditation. When I am taking photographs, I am totally absorbed and focused in the moment.  That state of detachment and abstraction is both cathartic and calming. It fills me with a sense of peace and spiritual connection to the wonder and beauty of the natural world. But is also about a sense of awe at the power of the elemental natural forces that shape the coastline.  Being battered by wind whipped sand and salt spray, barely able to stand in the full force of a storm can be exhilarating and makes you feel alive.

But what fascinates me most, is light. Cornwall, where I live in the UK, is renowned for its quality of light and has attracted and inspired artists for centuries. But what really captivates me is not so much the quality of light as the nature of light.

You can’t hear, touch, taste or smell light, it is just there, everywhere and ever present. My ‘light in the darkness’ series is not just about the way that light illuminates the landscape but essence of light itself, the magical evanescent quality of light interacting with our atmosphere.

It has been said that my photography, in particular my black and white work, is dark and ominous but it is actually all about the light and without darkness there is no light. 

For me light in the darkness is optimistic, it symbolises hope. It is synonymous with creation, whether you believe that to be by divine design or a happy, chemical cocktail of coincidence. Light symbolises life. It represents creative inspiration, wisdom and enlightenment.  It is cleansing, replenishing and renewing. And as a Photographer it is It is the basis of photography, the art of capturing and creating images with this miraculous by-product of the Sun’s nuclear fusion. Travelling 83 million miles at 186,000 miles a second it reaches this distant water laden rock spinning through infinity in less than eight and a half minutes and illuminates our world.

The images I create often have a spiritual or ‘other worldly’ quality. They are not how we normally see the world, but it is what the camera sees and a recurrent, intentional theme in my work.  Black and white lends itself perfectly to this, it is abstracted from our usual visual experience, rendering the world in relative values or light and dark. For me, it is all about trying to see and show the world differently, to convey something of the sense of wonder and awe that I feel and hopefully the images invite the viewer feel the same.