Just passing through.
I done a little interview last month, nothing fancy, just a short Q and A on Instagram, so with my tiny following, a very small deal. I did enjoy answering the questions though. It started with, when did you make your first photograph, what was your first camera, what inspires you etc. But what was really interesting was reading an interview with the same people, but from a younger artist. The first camera was digital, influences were from pintrest and images online (no books, old photographers, exhibitions etc), and photographers were all younger and splattered all over Instagram. To me this speaks volumes because in my opinion the only way to know what good photography is, is to look at what has gone before. Pioneers of photography that worked with old techniques and what they had, pushing the boundaries and showing us how good they really were. These days, anyone can manipulate a photograph to produce what they want, be it a stormy sky that wasn’t there, warm light, or removing various distractions. But back in the day you would never have said, ‘I’ll take that out, or add that later in post.’
I get the sense that young photographers today are not living in their work, they are just passing through, and that’s without ever leaving the house.
In the name of Art?
Desert Fire, Mojave, 2024
Back in 2005 I was traveling across America in an old Dodge Truck with my 8/10” camera looking to make my mark in the photography world when I received a call from my agent in London telling me there had been a flood in New Orleans and if I would go and photograph it. I have always been interested on photographing places that have seen better days, for example my Salton Sea work, but this was different. People had lost their lives, their homes, and the situation was still very much in flux and something a Photojournalist (remember those) needed to cover, not a fine art photographer. I refused the offer, much to the annoyance of my agency as I was not uncomfortable with the situation.
Reflecting on the ongoing LA fires, I feel the same way as I did about Katrina. No matter how dramatic things may appear photographically, I would never consider it an option for a photograph. I want my work to evoke an emotion, maybe happiness, calm, or even sadness, but never one of horror. My hope is that fine art photographers don’t do what they did during Katrina and descend by the dozen in the name of art..
MOJAVE
A place in constant flux with surprises around ever corner, the Mojave still calls me most weekends. At 47,000 square miles there is always something to photograph. And so the quest continues..
“The Mojave is a big desert and a frightening one. It’s as though nature tested a man for endurance and constancy to prove whether he was good enough to get to California.”
John Steinbeck. Travels With Charley: In Search of America (1962)
To the desert we go..
A new year along with an upcoming new location. Having spent the past thirty year traveling around, a move out to the desert seems like an obvious choice for a landscape photographer such as myself. Having spent hundreds of hours in the desert, my hope is that I will finally absorb my surroundings and produce my finest work, or at least that’s what I am hoping for.
Always room for a bit of Mono..
Sonoran Desert, 2024
In the US as early as the 1930’s the likes of Dorothea Lange and Walker Evan’s took to the road in what could be seen as the first photograph road trip. Since those days of big awkward film cameras and large wooden tripods, photographers have continued to travel across the States with their cameras with the likes of Stephen shore and Joel Sternfeld bringing an aesthetic vision clearly seen in much of today’s ‘road trip’ photography.
My first American road trips were done with a 35mm camera loaded with black and white film with a deep red filter to increase contrast, a common technique in the 90’s. I still take the 35mm film camera on all of my trips loaded with black and white, often making a snap or two until the film is finished, an enjoyable throwback to a time when photography seemed more straightforward.
The jump from black and white 35mm up to 5/4” color was a revelation for me, but there will always be room for a bit of monochrome.
It was a good year, sort of..
Its been many years since I spent Christmas ‘at home.’ Or at least the home I grew up in. A trip abroad, a friends cabin in the mountains, a road trip across the States, and so it goes. Most Brits, for some reason, will choose this time of year to spend time with family despite never seeing them for the whole year and then wonder why there’s fallout. But wherever I may be, Christmas for me has always been a time to look back at the last year and see what I have actually done.
One thing that always rubs me up the wrong way is when photographers, usually famous, you know the ones, talk about how you only make 12 good images a year, or one good image a year (well which is it). A daft concept in that it depends how often you go out and shoot, and of course its all very subjective. Anyway, work wise, this year was a good one, but as is often the case, not because everything was hunky dory, far from it. Times of adversity often brings out the good stuff..
Winter of My Discontent.
It was a dark time when I made the series, Winter Of My Discontent. It was November of last year and I spent the month going out early AM with my 6/12 panoramic camera. loading one roll of black and white film I would make 6 images before first light. These images have a very different feel to all of my other work and reflect a period in life that was filled with much loss. The immense cold and darkness only added to the feeling of isolation and once again photography became a coping mechanism.
I have often said that, ‘no one goes out on a warm sunny day and comes back with a meaningful photograph.’ I think this series backs up that statement nicely.
What do you know.
Tree Fire, Mojave desert, 2024
Many moons ago there was a photographer, Patrick Litchfield. He was the official photographer for the Royal Family so Americans will have no clue as to who he is. But he was the man and the only thing we had in the north of England in a time before the internet. He had his own TV series and each week he would announce a photographic challenge. Week one was to go out and make photographs within one mile of your home. He called it shooting what you know. I held onto this method so much so that I returned to my hometown some years later to shoot The Flowery Room project as part of my Masters.
Despite this mantra, as a photographer, like many others, the temptation is always to venture out and fine new things, rather than following in the footsteps of Proust;
"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands but seeing with new eyes.”
Absorbing oneself into a place is sometimes the only way to produce the best work. Its the difference between living somewhere or just passing through. But fundamentally, It all goes back to shooting what you know..
A Parody of Nature.
El Mirage, 2024
Since my first photograph I have photographed the Urban Sprawl. As much as I love nature and being outdoors, I have no interest in photographing its purity (I should note here my pet hate of photographing natural scenes and then manipulating them into something over worked, over saturated, and utterly pointless.) Given the choice, I would rather photograph a rusty old car, than a beautiful old tree, but more so, I have always been fascinated at the attempts made to make something man-made look natural, a parody of nature if you will.
Warm and Fuzzy.
Jim’s Junk. Mojave 2024
I put together a book edit for my Junk Yards of the Mojave project a few months ago and had forgotten how much I like it, in particular this image.
Who would of thought a photograph of a junk yard could give you that warm fuzzy feeling.
The project itself took a long time to get going. The main challenge was finding the good junk yards, often in the middle of nowhere. Then you have to try and get good compositions in what can appear at first as a big mess, and of course the light must be warm and delightful.
And then came the wind..
This time last year I witnessed my first Extratropical Cyclone. Basically a very cold (-40) day where you don’t want to go outside for any reason. But the photographer in me said I might just get a couple of good shots and so layered up and ventured out into the arctic. Things didn’t actually feel that bad at first, and then the wind blew. I managed to get this shot just before my eyeballs froze.
Time warp..
Sometimes it can feel like my work is stuck in a time warp. I work the same way I always have, with only the camera changing over the years. I have never felt the need to move with the current trends, and doubt other seasoned types have either. In fact I think it would be the biggest mistake..
These days its all about the process of photography and the actual going out and making of photographs. In fact, sometimes it doesn’t even matter if there is an actual outcome, a photograph. But it wasn’t always like this. Early on in my picture making, if I came back empty handed I would be overcome with a strange feeling of loss. Strange because there was nothing actually lost in the first place. As my mother would say; “You cannot loose what you never had.”
My days of trying to produce a masterpiece every time I pick up a camera are long gone now, but that’s not to say it won’t happen..
Stop the bus I want to get off (and take a photograph).
El Mirage November 2024.
As Thanksgiving approaches and my students are set their final assignments for the year, I lounge and wonder what the future of my own work will look like. Despite the technological advances over the years, my photography methods remain the same, as does much of my content. The same could be said for many of the great photographers I worked with back in my printing days. In fact, I do not remember a photographer ever experimenting with a new technique or technology. It was always the same film, camera, lens and a certain final esthetic because it was always about the subject.
Without going down another rabbit hole on the subject of technology, I think its safe to say that consistency today is something of an enigma for the next generation of photographers.
An experience in light.
It had been a good few years since I visited Death Valley, but the old haunts remained the same. I had been wanting to make this photograph for a while knowing that first light would do the job (having photographed it midday several years ago).
An experience of light and what it does to the landscape is something that seems to be lost these days especially when you consider that AI button in Photoshop that allows you to add a sunset or sunrise that you were not around for. Experiencing a landscape, the light, the air, the location, is everything. The photograph itself is just a bonus.
Surprises around every corner but nothing dangerous..
Cones, El Mirage, Nov 2024
Back in the day when I considered myself a purist shooting on an 8/10” camera, this kind of shot would have blown me away. It’s pretty reminiscent of Misrach’s Bonville Salt flats image Outdoor Dining 1992 as part of his Desert Cantos series (Still a firm favorite of mine). I made the image without really thinking while waiting for the Time Trials to start at El Mirage, but looking at it now, I really love it. This image has everything I look for in my work; beautiful light in a minimalist landscape with that all important man-made element most people would discard.
Where do we go from here?
Leica, film, nice thoughts..
I find it odd these days that people are still debating Film verses Digital. Its an unwinnable argument because neither is better, just different. They can never be the same. Even the latest Digital Leica Monochrome camera with no preview pretending to be a film camera is nothing but a digital imposter of the highest order.
I read somewhere recently that AI has become the next ‘versus’ argument. But I could not agree less because its not photography at all.
And to end the debate, film has been around for a hundred years and isn’t going anywhere..
The End..
It’s been 20 years since I started photographing the Salton Sea (that fact possibly mentioned on here many times), but the pull is always there every time I head East. Its a place that is always changing but somehow stays the same. The recent ‘discovery’ of Lithium in the area used for EV batteries is an interesting one, but I am doubtful the money it will produce will benefit the poorest people in the state. You only have to look at the Tropico mine in the Mojave to see that the surrounding area is a complete hole of a place. My guess is that the area, in particular the lake itself, will become even more polluted than it was before, perhaps finishing off the locals. Maybe this really is the end of the road for the Salton Sea, but I doubt anyone cares.
Mayor of Bombay
Mayor Of Bombay Beach. October 2024
Another interesting in-landscape portrait which is about as far as I go in terms of photographing people. As with my Lady Speedster portrait shot at El Mirage, the landscape is as important as the subject within it.
Sometimes the old ways are just better..
Good to get back into some proper black and white printing.
Still got it!