The Coast Exposed photographers
Paul Wakefield – National Trust
In my work, I look for images that have strong graphic forms and lines and include a limited colour range, in an attempt to abstract from nature to simplify its strength and purity. A search for the order in randomness. I’m looking to photograph the immediate emotional response I experienced on first seeing a composition, and through the constraints of film and equipment, to hold that fleeting feeling through to the final printed image. To make the image as tactile as possible to achieve an almost physical capture.
For the rock pools there were the added constraints of tide times and wind as well as choice of light. Ironically some pools photographed better in very bright light while others only worked in soft light. During the exposure times of between a 1/4 second and 1 second, it was essential to have no wind so that the water surface remained unruffled.
All the photographs were made using a 5X4 Ebony view camera with Fuji Velvia film.
See more of Paul's work on his website.
Joe Cornish – National Trust
Joe's fine-art background and a passion for the natural world influence his landscape photography. Drawing inspiration from his photographic heroes such as Ansel Adams and Peter Dombrovskis, whose work led to the protection of the wilderness in America and Tasmania respectively, Joe is a strong believer in the idea of landscape photography as an advocate for the preservation of the natural world.
A key publication was First Light (2002), a retrospective of his landscape work to that date. The book articulates Joe's technique, methods, aesthetic ideas and working philosophy in clear, simple language.
Joe says of his work:
Stylistically, I try not to impose too much. I strive to make my interpretations of the landscape as natural as possible, yet dramatic enough to be interesting.
I want the landscape to speak through the photographs, or, seen another way, I see the pictures as a window on the world - a frame through which the imagination can step and take a walk. Ultimately, they are my attempt to celebrate and honour nature's beauty.
See more of Joe's work on his website.
Nick Meers – National Trust
Nick is an experienced UK-based photographer who has illustrated and written over 30 books, four of which are in the panoramic format. The National Trust Photographic Library has a large collection of his garden and architectural work, and his interest in panoramic photography has gained him an international reputation. He lives with his family 'in the middle of nowhere'.
Nick says of his work:
I have been shooting 'perfect landscapes' for many years all over the world, and my approach to photography has changed as I have noticed an ever-widening gap between the idealised images required by clients and the sometimes awful reality of supposedly exotic locations.
A lifelong interest in 'backstage reality' led to the creation of Enigmatic England in 1990, in which the reader is invited to guess where a detail image might be located, and the 'reveal' is surprisingly unexpected. The ecological aspects of my work have evolved from exposure to many sullied locations, where man has left his ugly footprint in otherwise beautiful places.
My work with the National Trust goes back nearly 20 years, where the pure joy of working in special places has given way to outrage at how sometimes these places are abused, hence the interest in documenting the backstage reality.
See more of Nick's work on his website.
Publications include: A Year in The Garden, National Trust, 2001, Enigmatic England, 1990, Panoramas of England, Orion books 1992 and Stretch, the world of Panoramic photography (author), Rotovision, 2003.
David Noton – National Trust
David's interest in photography began when he was in the Merchant Navy, and in 1982 he returned to college in Gloucester. As a result of travelling all over the world, David appreciates differing landscapes offered by the British Isles, from dramatic mountain ranges to pastoral rolling farmland. He has won awards in the landscape categories of the British Gas/BBC Wildlife Photography Competition (1985, 1990 and 1991).
David said of the photograph above:
Stood overlooking the derelict tin mine of Wheal Coates, I'm reflecting on the nature of man's impact on the landscape of these isles. Doubtless in its time this edifice was seen as an eyesore, now it stands proudly as an icon of Cornwall. Its incomparably situated, with the sweep of the north coast beyond.
Here on the longest day of the year, with the purple heather peppering the cliffs with colour I'm blessed with a dramatic sky as the sun finally drops far to the north west. The light has that magical quality photographer's long for. Right now, right here, there's nowhere else I'd rather be.
See more of David's work on his website.
Leo Mason – National Trust
After art school, Leo Mason spent 3 years in advertising as an art director and then left to pursue a photographic career in 1976. He worked initially for The Observer, before going freelance and forming his own photographic agency, Split Second. His work has appeared regularly in Time Magazine, Sports Illustrated, GQ, ESPN Magazine, Stern and Paris Match.
Leo says of his work:
I have always been athletic and sports photography was a natural subject for me. I try to capture the action (or inaction!) in a creative manner and hopefully this is reflected in my photos.
I now shoot with high-end digital Canon cameras and a range of lenses from 16mm to 600mm telephotos. I tend to approach each shoot in an abstract way and will use which ever lens/shutter speed that I feel will give me a new perspective.
See more of Leo's work on his website.
Stuart Franklin – Magnum
Stuart Franklin graduated in photography and film at West Surrey College of Art and Design and in geography at the University of Oxford (BA and PhD). Along other allcolades he has won the Tom Hopkinson Award for published photojournalism and the Christian Aid prize for humanitarian photography while covering the Sahel famine, 1984–85.
Stuart says of his work:
I am always taking environmental (as opposed to set-up studio) portraits of people if it is appropriate. In the Farnes I feel the portraits of the wardens added weight to the photography, telling us more about the people who dedicate so much time caring for the environment.
In Boscastle, I was more interested in showing traces of the flood. I did take some portraits including one of a family affected by the flooding but few remained and in the end we selected other images. I always like to approach people. It's part of how I come to understand my subject.
See more of Stuart's work on his website.
Ian Berry – Magnum
Ian Berry made his reputation as a photo-journalist with his reporting from South Africa. He was the only photographer to document the Sharpeville massacre, and his photographs were used to prove the victims' innocence in the subsequent trial. While based in Paris he was invited to join Magnum in 1962 by Henri Cartier-Bresson. He moved to London in 1964 to become the first contract photographer for the Observer Magazine.
Assignments have taken him worldwide, documenting the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, conflict in Israel and Ireland, wars in Vietnam, Zaire and Rwanda, and famine in Ethiopia. Awards include that of first-ever Nikon Photographer of the Year, the Picture of the Year award from the National Press Photographers of America, the British Press Magazine Photographer of the Year and the first Arts Council Grant which led to his acclaimed book, The English.
Ian says of his work:
For me the great strength of the camera over the brush is the ability to seize a moment, to combine the peak of a situation and meld it into a graphic shape. The one without the other is simply either an exercise in design or a snapshot.
See more of Ian's work on his website.
David Hurn – Magnum
David Hurn is particularly well known for spotlighting the ambiguities and eccentricities of the human experience, using an artifice that intensifies both aesthetic and emotional response. As one critic wrote, 'he can produce a sensation of strangeness inside the familiar'. Since the mid-1970s he has mainly been documenting Wales, producing work that the BBC said is 'determining the look of Wales for decades to come'.
Questioned about his own approach to taking images, and the influence of one of the Magnum founders, Cartier-Bresson's work, and David’s own approach to taking images he said:
I suspect Henri influences us all. In my case mainly by his humanity. Visually I have been most intrigued by painters: Bruegel, Rubens, Manet, Degas, and Hopper etc. Being an involved observer is important to me, I have no interest in setting up pictures. I have ploys for being unnoticed, I dress in a neutral manner, I read a lot which helps in blending in, and I use Leica cameras with tiny lenses.
Publications include On Being a Photographer and On Looking at Photographs both for Lens Work Publishing.
Chris Steele-Perkins – Magnum
Chris moved from Rangoon to London with his family in 1949. He graduated with honours in psychology at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1967–70), while working as a photographer and picture editor for the student newspaper. In 1979, his first book, The Teds, was published. He joined Magnum and soon began working extensively in the Third World.
His latest large-scale project is on the situation in Afghanistan and he is also working extensively in Japan. His reportage work has received high public acclaim and won several awards, including the Tom Hopkinson Prize for British Photojournalism (1988), the Oscar Barnack Prize (1988) and the Robert Capa Gold Medal (1989).