Notes on favorite photographs.
My Tree, Eden Valley, UK 2023
Photographers always get asked if they have a favorite photograph. As commonplace as this may seem, its always been an odd thing for me and a bit like asking someone who’s your favorite child, or actor. But for photographers and artists the answer is not a simple one. Often it depends on what mood you're in, or what you are working on at the time. The image above is a good example of my current favorite image. It has nothing to do with the slightly moody sky, or the rule of thirds, or even the visual appeal of the image, which although nice is not a breath taking low angle super dooper dramatic scene. This particular image is all to do with that gnarly tree; When I was a boy I would go for long walks with my father and our dog. We would always stop at ‘My Tree’ where I would climb up the knotty branches and dangle like a monkey while our dog run around chasing rabbits. I never questioned the fact that the tree stood alone in a field and was over 700 years old. After the death of my father I made a special trip to ‘My Tree’ and made this image. It was probably one of the most emotional moments of my life captured in a photograph, and therin lies one of the true joys of the medium.
And so after twenty plus years working in a gallery market I can safely say that, ‘my favorite will never be your favorite.’ And then there is the photographers favorite…
'A photographers photographer’ was a term often used back in the days when I was printing for clients in my little North London darkroom, but it something you don’t really hear now. (Personally I blame the over-saturation of the digital market and online content, but I am sure it still exists.) A photographers photographer often referred to work that was more than just a visually stunning image, there was something more. These images had meaning and depth, but often you had to really look at the image and not just swipe at it as we might with so many of the fruity, colorful, hyper-real images of today. Thanks to today’s digital online platforms, it’s easy to find a photographers photographer. There the ones with the least amount of followers..
