Photography books Archives - Amateur Photographer

The best landscape photography books for inspiration

Amy Davies — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 13:35:08 +0000

Give your shelves and coffee table some class with AP’s picks of the best landscape photography books, selected by Amy Davies.

Landscape has always been one of the most popular genres of photography, and it’s easy to see why. A good landscape photograph can be, and encompass many things, as the books on our list demonstrate beautifully. Be it the celebration of a place or particular feature – a spectacular mountain or peaceful lake – or the evocation of a moment, like a pitch-perfect sunrise or sudden snowstorm. Rural, or urban – devoid of people, or full of them. The world is you oyster if you’re looking to improve your landscape photography.

A great source of inspiration to take more and better landscapes is to look at the work of others; hence, we’ve compiled this list of some of the best landscape photography books to have passed our desks in recent years. Some of these collections include the work of several photographers, while others are by just a single artist. It doesn’t matter really – we just love seeing great landscapes!

If all this inspires to do some shooting for yourself, check out our guide to the best lenses for landscape photography.

Featured image: St Michael’s Mount, Cornwall, England – from The Art of Landscape Photography

Best landscape photography books

Landscape by Jeremy Walker

2020, RRP £45, Self-published, hardback, 232 pages

Regular readers will already be aware of the stunning work of landscape pro Jeremy Walker. His debut book, published in 2020, takes a look at some of the UK’s lesser-known hidden gems found hidden away from the more obvious landscape destinations.

It also explores some of Britain’s sometimes rocky history, through the ruins of once-impressive castles and abbeys. Presented here are dramatic landscapes, atmospheric weather conditions and if nothing else, a checklist of potential getaway locations for your next photography trip. It’s also got a foreword by AP editor Nigel Atherton.

One of the stunning images from Jeremy Walker’s Landscape book

Landscape Photographer of the Year: Collection 15

2022, RRP £35, Ilex Press, hardback, 224 pages, ISBN: 9781781578650

The annual Landscape Photographer of the Year competition is one of the highlights of the photographer’s calendar, and the 2022 crop produced some absolutely spectacular imagery. The full collection from the competition’s 15th year would make a tasteful addition to any coffee table, and is the ideal source of inspiration for anyone looking to remind themselves of the incredible landscape possibilities in the UK alone.

The competition, founded by avid landscape shooter Charlie Waite, was won that year by first-time entrant Will Davies – a reminder that you don’t have to be a seasoned shooter to make a great showing in LPOTY. You can read our full interview with LPOTY winner Will Davies, and see a few of the winning 2022 LPOTY entries. But really, wouldn’t you rather have them in glorious printed form, to be admired and shared from the comfort of your sofa? So we thought…

Brecon In Winter. Location: Brecon Beacons National Park, Wales. Canon EOS 5DSR, EF 70-200mm f/4L. Photo credit: Will Davies

Chasing Light by Stefan Forster

2022, RRP £40, Teneues, hardback, 240 pages, ISBN: 9783961713837

For their sheer diversity of locations, pick up one of Stefan Forster’s books. Every year, the Swiss photographer spends six months travelling the world, and leading a number of workshops to the planet’s most beautiful and remote places. Much of the time he spends in Iceland, his adopted second home.

In Chasing Light, his latest volume, we can see some of Stefan’s most beautiful experiences to date, shown from a variety of impressive perspectives. This tome is a potential classic in the making and a masterclass in how straightforward landscape imagery should be done.

Namib Naukluft National Park, Namibia – from Chasing Light landscape photography books by Stefan Forster

The Art of Landscape Photography by Mark Bauer and Ross Hoddinott

2022, RRP $26.95 / £13.99, Ammonite Press, softback, 192 pages, ISBN 9781781454480

If you’re keen to learn more about great landscape photography, then you’ve got not one, but two industry pros on hand here to go beyond the basics and look at the heart and soul of landscape photography – composition and aesthetic design to convey meaning and emotion. With numerous examples, as well as in-depth technical detail, this is one to really pore over to improve your skills.

Stone Age: Ancient Castles of Europe by Frédéric Chaubin

2021, RRP £35.85, Taschen, hardback, 412 pages, ISBN: 9783836585019

Castles are a classic mainstay of landscape photography. If they’re your thing too, then this book – which spans Europe and includes more than 200 buildings in 21 countries – is likely to be manna from Heaven. What’s more, the images (like the one below) were shot on film with a Linhof view camera, so they’re not quite the same as your average picture-postcard travelogue. Again, you could quite easily use this as a checklist to help you plan your next landscape expedition.

Castles are a classic choice for landscape photographers

Don McCullin: The Landscape

2018, RRP $64 / £48, Jonathan Cape, hardback, 184 pages, ISBN: 9781787330429

While best known as a documentary photographer of some of the most harrowing conflicts of the post-war 20th century, Don McCullin is also an accomplished landscape shooter and darkroom master. In this inspiring collection he captures the dark, brooding mystery of the west country in winter, notably the Somerset Levels.

A tough Londoner by birth, McCullin’s country roots run deep – he first came to Somerset as an evacuee in the war and has lived near Bruton there for many years. There are also scenes from farther-flung locations, such as Syria and India. Wherever he shoots, McCullin’s composition is dramatic and arresting, and the darkroom toning utterly breathtaking.

Ansel Adams 400 Photographs

2007, RRP $29.99/£30, Little, Brown & Company, hardback, 432 pages, ISBN: 9780316117722

No collection of landscape photography books would be complete without a mention of the original master, Ansel Adams. This book from 2007 is a comprehensive overview of the legendary photographer’s stunning work, published in a beautiful volume. With an RRP of £30 (and generally available at a cheaper price) it’s an absolute bargain, and likely, if you buy just one book from our list – this should probably be it.

Sirens by Rachael Talibart

2018, prices vary, Triplekite Publishing, hardback, 64 pages, ISBN: 9780993258992

One of the best contemporary landscape photographers working today, you would be hard-pushed to find a brand new copy of any of Rachael Talibart’s books – which is a testament to how popular they are. You should be able to find second-hand copies of Sirens, however, which showcases her critically acclaimed seascape and wave work – the monstrous waves being named after mythological beings. Beautiful and considered work, this would be a fantastic addition to any budding landscape photographer’s shelf.

Landscape Photographer of the Year: Collection 14

2021, RRP $40/£30, Ilex Press, hardback, 224 pages, ISBN: 9781781578155

The Landscape Photographer of the Year competition has been running for a fair few iterations now, and if you’re looking for more landscape inspiration, the previous years’ collections are just as spectacular as the latest. The 2021 competition was the award’s 14th year – you can see all the 2021 LPOTY winners here – and includes some absolute gems.

The winner in 2021 was Mara Leite, whose image ‘Morning at Countryside’, taken in West Sussex, netted her a cool £10,000. If you fancy a shot at that, then picking up the collection is a great way to familiarise yourself with the kinds of images that impress Charlie Waite and the other competition judges.

This gorgeous image by Tomasz Rojek features in the LPOTY Collection 14 book.

Classic landscape photography books

Our recommended selection of definitive landscape books

Earth from Above by Yann Arthus-Bertrand

2017 (originally published in 1999), £58, Abrams, 440 pages, ISBN: 9781419722844

First published over 20 years ago, this gorgeous book has sold more than three million copies worldwide. Aerial images from multiple journeys across five continents and 60 countries provide a comprehensive survey of the Earth from a spectacular vantage point – and from a time before drones made it more commonplace. In the newer edition, over 100 new pictures are included, as well as essays from leading experts and environmentalists.

Land by Fay Godwin

1985, Prices vary, William Heinemann Ltd, 160 pages, ISBN: 9780434303052

Arguably one of the most essential purchases for anybody interested in British landscape photography, this beautiful collection of black & white imagery covers a good breadth of the country. The pictures are subtle and lovingly printed, and anybody who finds one second-hand is unlikely to be disappointed.

Light and the Art of Landscape Photography by Joe Cornish

2003, Amphoto, Prices vary, ISBN: 9780817441524

Joe Cornish is one of the UK’s most well-known and popular landscape photographers, and this almost 20-year-old book gives an insight into his creative genius. Featuring 150 fantastic images, alongside his valuable insights on how the picture came to be made, plus technical info and the thought processes and creative inspirations behind each image.

Cape Light: Photographs by Joel Meyerowitz

2015 (originally published 1979), Prices vary, Aperture, 112 pages, ISBN: 9781597113397

Although currently out of print, this exquisite selection of photographs is widely regarded as one of the most influential and popular photography books, particularly as it was unusual at the time for its use of colour. Whether you can get your hands on an original print, or the 2015 re-edition, you’ll find a masterful array of captivating shots.

Best photography books of 2023

Amy Davies — Wed, 13 Dec 2023 12:30:42 +0000

Amy Davies looks at the best photography books as featured in Amateur Photographer.

Every year there are amazing books published, but here we highlight the best photography publications, with dozens of fantastic tomes to add to your shelf – or your wish list.

It’s a tricky task to go through all of the books featured in the magazine in the past to pick out a set of highlights, but the simple fact that they’ve been in the magazine means we think they’re worth your attention. Despite the difficulties it presents in terms of narrowing down the huge selection, it’s always one of my favourite things to do – and a real joy to put together the finished list of recommendations.

I’ve tried to include a broad church of different volumes in my selection. There should be something to meet most budgets and interests. We’ve got a wide selection of genres, photographers and styles here, so there should be something to suit every need.

Documentary photography, particularly historical and archive photography, has been particularly strong, with a keen sense of nostalgia seeming to do well with book publishers.

There’s also great showings from wildlife photographers, historical and archival work and contemporary artists too, showing that there’s no sign of the medium becoming less favoured even in a primarily digital age.

There’s still something special about having something physical to hold in your hands, the smell of the paper and the weight of a solid book. Even if we do perhaps need reinforced shelving to hold some of our favourites.

The books presented here are in no particular order. Narrowing it down the selected few was difficult enough, let alone ordering them. Of course, every person’s taste is different so what might appeal to me might not appeal to you. Hopefully, there’s at least a couple here that will tickle your fancy. Happy reading!

Magnum Magnum (2023 edition) Edited by Brigitte Lardinois, Foreword by Olivia Arthur

£125, Thames & Hudson, 728 pages, hardback, ISBN: 9780500545621

A couple of members of Magnum Photos are mentioned elsewhere in this round-up, but for the ultimate of the agency’s enormous and well-regarded collection, then Magnum Magnum is the one to get.

Yes, it’s priced at £125, which is by no means cheap, but at 728 pages and more than 500 pictures, it actually scores highly on the value for money scale (and you are likely to find it cheaper than the RRP anyway).

Magnum Magnum is an epic tome covering the span of the agency’s 75 years, with images being selected by other members, a reflection of the agency’s founding principle of collaboration. It was first published in 2007, and sold a staggering 200,000 copies. This new edition adds in 25 new photographers who have joined the agency in the past 15 years. If you want to learn what does well in both historical and contemporary documentary photography, this is possibly the only book you need this year.

Sammy Davis Jr. looks out a Manhattan window. New York City, USA, 1959. © Burt Glinn / Magnum

Buy now from Amazon UK

Love Story: New Photography of Love and Intimacy

£20, Hoxton Mini Press, hardback, 224 pages, ISBN: 9781914314353

Featuring the work of more than 23 contemporary photographers, this anthology aims to capture what it is to love and be loved in the modern world.

A range of types of love are considered in this beautiful volume from the ever-wonderful Hoxton Mini Press. There’s first love, lost love, parental love, friendship love and much more besides.
To explore that love, we see a series of compelling portraits that gel together extremely well, with representations across many divides. It’s perhaps fair to assume that not every photograph will stun you visually, but pretty much every story should touch your heart in some way.

Back in my original review (AP 7 March 2023 issue), I predicted that this book would make it into AP’s 2023 Books of the Year list, and unsurprisingly, few have surpassed it in terms of all-round warmth and humanity – and it’s a great price too.

Buy now from Amazon UK

Dark Room by Garry Fabian Miller

£40, Bodleian Library, hardback, 240 pages, ISBN: 9781851246090

I know many of our readers aren’t fans of Fabian Miller’s work – we have the letters to prove it – but Dark Room spoke to me in ways that very few photographic books have over the years.
The abstract photography here certainly won’t be to everybody’s tastes (as if that’s a bad thing), but to sit down and absorb the book, cover-to-cover, is quite an experience that is far more than the sum of its individual parts.

It takes the form of a memoir, charting the photographer’s career from its early days up to the present. Yes, it’s camera-less, it’s OK not to like it, but the fact that this process involves Garry spending hours sitting in complete darkness, and, may poignantly have caused his diagnosis of cancer, is a testament to an artist’s dedication to their craft.

This book accompanied one of my favourite exhibitions of the year – perhaps of the past several years – at the Arnolfini in Bristol, where the scale of the work allowed you to take it in much more than the book could ever hope to. I’d urge you to give it a try if you happen to come across this book – you never know how you might feel at the end of it.

There is No Shadow, 2017. Light, oil, Lambda C-print dye destruction print. © Garry Fabian Miller

Buy now from Amazon UK

On Divorce: Portraits and voices of separation, a photographic project by Harry Borden

£18, The School of Life Press, hardback, 144 pages, ISBN: 9781915087393

You might not think of divorce as the obvious subject for a photography book, but with Harry Borden’s tender and touching project for The School of Life, you might be surprised to learn just how perfect it is for a photographer like him.

Anybody familiar with the magazine will already recognise Harry’s name from our regular When Harry Met magazine series, as well as from other projects that we’ve featured in the past. A successful portrait and advertising photographer for many years, his distinctive style with celebrities and other well-known figures has given him many years of experience of getting to know a story to help him with personal projects like this.

That said, the portraits here are about as far-removed from the glamour and glitz of a celebrity portrait as you can get, but, of course, are all the more real for it. A subject close to his own heart, through a compelling series of portraits we learn that divorce, although often painful, doesn’t necessarily have to be a disaster. A wise lesson for us all and certainly an intriguing prospect for a photography book.

Lucia (with Lola and Bruno) © Harry Borden

Buy now from Amazon UK

Portrait of Humanity Volume 5

£25, Hoxton Mini Press, hardback, 320 pages, ISBN: 9781914314346

The latest volume of the fantastic Portrait of Humanity, produced in collaboration with the British Journal of Photography, brings together more than 200 portraits by photographers from across the globe.

I always find that each one of these portraits is a reflection of both the sitter and the photographer – as all good photographic portrait collaborations probably should be. Each one also comes with a small story to give you some background about who it is you’re looking at.

If you like portraiture as much as I do, then it’s always a treat to receive the latest of the Portrait of Humanity books – and don’t forget that there’s also a Portrait of Britain book too for a more inwards look at our own nation.

The small size of this book keeps it affordable for the variety of portraits you get included, but still displays them beautifully – it would make a great present (Christmas or otherwise) for other photographers in your life.

Heritage Unmoving by Ponita Keo

Kiss It! by Abbie Trayler Smith

£40, GOST Books, hardback, 112 pages, ISBN: 9781910401958

This extraordinary documentary project shows us the value of a long-term collaboration between photographer and subject. It also shows us that looking at what you know – or what you’ve experienced yourself – brings an added dimension to a project that you might not otherwise benefit from.

Kiss It! follows the life of Shannon, a young woman living with obesity who the photographer Abbie Trayler-Smith has worked with for 12 years, spanning Shannon’s teenage years to her young adulthood. It forms part of the photographer’s even longer-term project, ‘The Big O’, which looks at obesity in school-age children and young adults.

Abbie sees herself in Shannon, as she experienced the same issues herself as an adolescent. This is also a topic that is affecting huge numbers of the British population – around one in four people in the UK are thought to be affected by it, so it’s something that probably resonates with many.

Full of joy, warmth and celebration, the project encourages us to examine our own prejudices and for that reason alone, I wanted to include it in my books of the year. It’s also technically excellent, and beautifully laid out and curated too.

Shannon, age 22, on holiday. Costa del Sol, Spain, 2018. © Abbie Trayler-Smith

Buy now from Amazon UK

The New Big 5: A Global Photography Project for Endangered Wildlife by Graeme Green

£62.50, Earth Aware Editions, 272 pages, hardback, ISBN: 9781647228705

This is another compendium of amazing wildlife photography, which also aims to shine a light on the problems that the world’s natural population is facing. Authored by regular AP contributor Graeme Green and featuring the work of 146 fantastic wildlife photographers, the book highlights the threats facing wildlife. Big names here include Steve McCurry, Paul Nicklen, David Lloyd, Art Wolfe, Beverley Joubert and more – as well as Graeme’s own work.

The original ‘Big 5’ is a term coined by colonial-era hunters in Africa for the most prized animals to shoot and kill: elephant, rhino, leopard, Cape buffalo and lion. Around ten years ago, while on assignment in Botswana, Graeme had the idea to flip this miserable term on its head and create a New Big 5 of wildlife photography – shooting with a camera rather than a gun.

To select the new big 5, Graeme put it to a public vote. Overall the winners came out as elephant, polar bear, gorilla, lion and tiger. You’ll find pictures of all of these animals – and many more – in this beautifully put together book.

Buy now from Amazon UK

Water by Ian Berry

£45, GOST Books, hardback, 180 pages, ISBN: 9781910401927

The legendary photojournalist, Magnum member, and subscriber to AP magazine, Ian Berry, published a sublime book this year – and it easily makes it into our list of best books, and not just of this year either.

Comprising 93 black & white images over 180 pages, and more than 15 years in the making, it displays all the credentials that you’d expect from someone invited to join the prestige agency by none other than Henri Cartier-Bresson himself.

He told Peter Dench earlier in the year, ‘I have gradually become aware through the years of my gathering images that something extraordinary was happening to our world – this year has shown above all others that the planet is struggling. There is too much water in some places, too little in others.’

The book, funded through a kickstarter, is a real labour of love, with maximal input from Ian Berry himself, and is not only a visual treat but an important one too.

Kolkata (Calcutta), West Bengal, India. Washing in the street is quite usual in the suburbs of a city where, a couple of miles from the centre, people have no running water in their homes © Ian Berry

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Book of the Road by Daniel Meadows

£45, Bluecoat Press, Flexibound hardcover, 220 pages, ISBN: 9781908457783

Fifty years ago, renowned British documentary photographer Daniel Meadows set off in his free photographic omnibus and captured a portrait of our nation that is still widely considered to be a masterpiece of documentary photography.

Aged just 21 at the time, Daniel travelled over 10,000 miles in a double-decker bus mapping the length and breadth of England, photographing a total of 958 people and offering a free print to each of his subjects.

The characters he encountered along the way – or at least some of them – are featured in this half-century anniversary of the famous project, which has been styled and shaped to emulate the old AA Book of the Road. A wonderful project, a wonderful read, and the perfect choice for anybody interested in the history of British documentary photography when it was perhaps at its peak.

Neil with his head in an elephant’s mouth, Circus Hoffman, Weymouth, Dorset, July 1974 © Daniel Meadows

Reclaim the Street: Street Photography’s Moment

£50, Thames and Hudson, hardback, 320 pages, ISBN: 9780500545379

Street photography is one of those genres that is hard to define precisely, but this book shows off the fantastic breadth and depth of those actually out there pounding the streets to do the work.
Curated by street photography stalwart Matt Stuart, and edited by Stuart McLaren – another big name in the field – the book attempts to put the spotlight on different facets of the genre in an engaging and well- thought-through collection.

It took Matt nearly four years of ‘almost-constant’ work to put the impressive tome together, and the love that has gone into every chapter really does shine through. As a thoroughly modern sweep of contemporary street photography, you shouldn’t expect all the classic, traditional or big names in this volume – and the book is all the better for that.

Haven’t we already digested enough of that work over the past half a century? Here we see things, names and places we might not have seen before, and for that reason, it’s easily one of the best books on street photography I’ve come across before. Equally, however, don’t worry about missing out on some of the ‘obvious’ things you might ordinarily assume to be in a book like this – there are those too. In short, there’s something for everyone here and for those looking to engage with this tricky genre, it’s hard to find something better.

Buy now from Amazon UK

Best of the rest featured in AP throughout 2023

Colourmania: Photographing the World in Autochrome by Caitlin Langford

ISBN: 9780500480762

This is a must-buy for lovers of early photography. Put together with access to the V&A’s autochromes collection, it provides a stunning look at the early 20th century in colour.

Buy now from Amazon UK

Julia Margaret Cameron: Arresting Beauty

ISBN: 9780500480861

Another delight for early-photography aficionados. Julia’s photographs broke conventions at the time, and give us a glimpse of what it was to be a strong, determined woman artist at the time too. This is a great introduction to her work if you’re not already familiar.

Buy now from Amazon UK

A Country Kind of Silence by Ian Howorth

ISBN: 9781915652034

Ian Howarth has an eye for spotting the beautiful in the mundane, and this collection of his work is a great example of how you can find subjects no matter where you point your camera. Full of small moments you might otherwise overlook.

David Hurn: Photographs 1955-2020

ISBN: 9781739702335

An opportunity for David Hurn to look back over his 65-year archive is also a fantastic treat for the reader. There are lesser-seen photographs, better-known works and a demonstration of the breadth and depth of this Magnum and documentary legend.

Buy now from Amazon UK

Evelyn Hofer: Dublin

ISBN: 9783958296329

Seen as part of her most important body of work, this book takes a look at the renowned documentary photographer Evelyn Hofer’s Dublin images. Largely consisting of portraits shot in 1965-66, the pictures within show off exactly what made Hofer a master of her craft, with an intense and respectful engagement with her subjects that few can replicate.

Buy now from Amazon UK

Shooters by Julia Boggio

ISBN: 9781739215118

I don’t think I’ve ever recommended a novel on our books pages before – and perhaps I never will again. However, for something a little bit different, how about a fiction book about the thrills and spills of being a wedding photographer? An ideal beach read, it’s also a good romp to see you through the dark winter nights, too.

Buy now from Amazon UK

California Dreamers by Sally Davies

ISBN: 9781781454657

We loved Sally’s 2021 New Yorkers project, so it was great to see a follow-up this year in the shape of California Dreamers, which looks at the characterful inhabitants of this vast state. Portraits taken in people’s homes aim to reveal as much – if not more – about their character as their physical appearances, and it works extremely well.

Buy now from Amazon UK

Breathing Space: Iranian Women Photographers by Anahita Ghabaian Etehadieh

ISBN: 9780500027158

This book highlights the work of 23 women photographers from Iran. A great look at photography from a non-Western perspective, it has been curated by the founder of the Silk Road Gallery in Tehran, Iran’s first gallery dedicated to contemporary photography.

Buy now from Amazon UK

Remembering Leopards by Wildlife Photographers United

ISBN: 9781999643379

The eighth book in the ‘Remembering’ series, this is another example of how photography can help the plight of wildlife around the world. Here we have 80 stunning colour images taken by some of the biggest names in wildlife photography today.

Buy now from Amazon UK

More great books…

Chris Killip

ISBN: 978-0500025581

thamesandhudson.com

This book represents the definitive, full-career retrospective of the life and work of Chris, one of the UK’s most important and influential post-war documentary photographers.

He is best known for his empathetic work photographing working class communities in north-east England aduring the 1970s and 1980s, against a background of shipbuilding and coal mining and the deindustrialisation of those industries. His sustained immersion into the communities he photographed remains without parallel.

Curated by long-time friends Ken Grant and Tracey Marshall-Grant and published to coincide with the first full retrospective of Killip’s life and work at the Photographers’ Gallery, London (on till 19th February) this definitive collection presents images from each of his major series alongside lesser-known works. It includes a foreword by Brett Rogers, in-depth essays by Ken Grant tracing Killip’s life and career, and texts by Gregory Halpern, Amanda Maddox and Lynsey Hanley.

If you have an interest in British documentary photography Chris Killip should be considered an essential addition to your bookshelves.

Buy now from Amazon UK

Looking Out From Within by Julia Fullerton-Batten

ISBN: 9781399908726

juliafullerton-batten.com/

Although we have probably just about had enough of looking at Covid-inspired pictures, these ones are so masterfully done that we can forgive it.

Many of us carried out lockdown projects, and for professional photographers, trapped inside or close to home with little to occupy themselves, we saw them turn their lenses to the subject surrounding the world.

For Looking Out From Within, the photographer Julia Fullerton-Batten reached out to her neighbours for a set of portraits with a twist. At first glance they might seem like candid captures, they are anything but. Each is a result of a collaboration with the sitter, with home Julia would discuss costumes, props, and poses. The only difference between these and a normal portrait is that the sitters are trapped within their own homes.

Always photographed at twilight, each picture has a slightly surreal effect. It is a good reflection of how we all felt at the time no doubt.

Penelope – Lockdown Day 51 © Julia Fullerton-Batten.

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Vivian Maier Developed: The Untold Story of the Photographer Nanny by Ann Marks

ISBN 9781982166724

simonandschuster.co.uk

Buy now from Amazon UK

Vivian Maier

ISBN 9780500025703

thamesandhudson.co.uk

There’s been a lot of interest in Vivian Maier. In the first half of the 2022, we saw a comprehensive new biography of the elusive ‘photographer nanny’, meticulously researched by Ann Marks. Later in 2022, there was also a major retrospective at the MK Gallery in Milton Keynes, accompanied by a book published by Thames & Hudson.

It’s worth picking up both books if you want a detailed look at this street photography master. However, the first gives you more detail about what Vivian was like as a person – or as best can be pieced together from those who knew her and historical records.

The story of this photographer, whose work was discovered and widely shared only after she had died, has held enduring appeal since first coming to public attention in 2009. The pages of both of these books make it easy to see why.

Despite never gaining recognition during her lifetime, Maier was both extremely prolific and razor-like in her abilities to capture a moment before moving on to the next. Her archive is said to include 140,000 images, with many thousands more which were never developed. Estimates suggest only 5% of her captures were processed during her own lifetime.

Read our interview with The untold story of Vivian Maier’s author Ann Marks.

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New York, January 26, 1955 © Estate of Vivian Maier, Courtesy of Maloof Collection and Howard Greenberg Gallery, NY.

Another Country by Gerry Badger

ISBN: 9780500022177

thamesandhudson.co.uk

If you’re a lover of documentary photography, Another Country is an absolute must-buy. It spans the British output to the genre since 1945, and as such includes some of the finest talents to call these shores home.

Indeed, more than 165 photographers are found inside this weighty tome’s pages. This includes Don McCullin, Bill Brandt, Bert Hardy, Nadav Kander, Cold War Steve, Chloe Dewe Matthews, Jane Bown and more.

British photography, or rather, photographers, have come to be respected as some of the finest in the world for documentary photography. The examination of British life and its society is an ongoing and vital project for its artists and photography.

This book, as well as presenting a superb array of photography, also examines themes and observations about the genre as a whole to give us a rich understanding of how it all fits together. You’ll also likely find some hidden masterpieces too that you’ve never come across before.

I said in my introduction that I wouldn’t be able to choose a single book as a winner for Book of 2022. However, for me, as a documentary and archival fan, if pushed, Another Country is exceptional and hard to beat.

Check out Gerry Bradger’s feature delving into how his book explores how photography has shaped British identity.

Paddy Summerfield, Blackpool, 1976-77 © Paddy Summerfield.

Buy now from Amazon UK

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Flora Photographica: The Flower in Contemporary Photography by William A.Ewing and Danaé Panchaud

ISBN: 9780500024584

thamesandhudson.co.uk

Released some 30 years after William A Ewing’s original volume, Flora Photographica is a surprising book in many respects.

As you’d expect, yes, it’s about floral photography. What you might not realise it’s just how broadly this subject spans a number of different photographic genres. You’ll find them in landscapes, portraits, documentary, fine art and of course still life photography.

A beautifully put together book, it brings together some of the best contemporary photography from some of the world’s leading practitioners – each tied by a common theme.

Again, this is a book for those who want to delve a little deeper than just looking at nice pictures (not that that is ever a bad thing). You’ll also be treated to essays exploring the meaning behind the photography, as well as essentially a history of the medium itself.

If you’re after something a little bit different, and aren’t quite sure where to start, this book marks an excellent way into exploring the contemporary.

Tall, 2017 by William Wegman.

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Face Time: A History of the Photographic Portrait by Phillip Prodger

ISBN: 9780500544914

thamesandhudson.co.uk

If you’re interested in portrait photography, this is a fascinating book that explores the genre from a range of different viewpoints.

The author, Philip Prodger, is currently a Senior Research Scholar at the Yale Center for British Art and has previously held positions including Head of Photographs at the National Portrait Gallery. In short, this is a chap who really knows his stuff.

He describes portraits as “one of the most difficult undertakings in art”. When I interviewed him earlier this year, he was kind enough to tell me all about why that’s the case – although of course the book goes into far more detail than we could have hoped to reproduce on our pages.

If you’re looking for a book which spans the history of photography this is an excellent example. I’m confident that anybody who reads it will come away learning something new about this appealing yet tricky to master genre.

Tom Hunter, Woman Reading a Possession Order, 1997, Ilfochrome print.

Buy now from Amazon UK

Bird (New photography of the) by Gemma Padley

ISBN: 9781910566718

hoxtonminipress.com

Written by former AP Features Editor Gemma Padley, this beautiful little book from the ever-impressive Hoxton Mini Press brings together a fantastic collection of contemporary bird photography.

We’ve got exciting practitioners here including Tim Flach, Neeta Madahar, Joel Sartore, Luke Stephenson and Julia Tatarchenko. But these are not your bog-standard birds in the garden shots. Each one brings something unusual or possibly even unique to the genre and each page is a delight to look at.

If you’re considering a more artistic approach to this common subject, this book is riddled with inspiration and beauty and – as usual with HMP – is extremely affordable.

Spreo Starling #1, 2019 © Luke Stephenson.

A World History of Women Photographers by Luce Lebart and Marie Robert

ISBN: 9780500025413

thamesandhudson.co.uk

Surely winning the prize for heaviest book of the year is this fantastic volume celebrating the many female practitioners, some well-known, some less-so, to have contributed to the medium since its invention.

It will come as no surprise to most that many excellent female photographers over the years either been ignored entirely, or possibly might have been ‘lucky’ enough to be reduced to supporting acts for their better-known spouses.

This book aims to put that right, shining a light on an array of brilliant yet perhaps unforgotten, or overlooked, work. Of course, there’s also a good selection of female trailblazers, innovators, entrepreneurs and rule breakers on these pages too.

As Tracy Calder wrote in her piece about the book for AP, ‘the overriding message of the book seems to be that women were here all along, inventing, experimenting, innovating and actively participating in the development of the medium.’ An excellent book for anyone – of any gender – to pick up and educate themselves about what they might have been missing out on.

Sigriður Zoëga, Women on the Banks of the Lake, 1915.

Buy now from Amazon UK

Apollo Remastered by Andy Saunders

ISBN: 9780241508695

apolloremastered.com

For half a century, almost every publicly available image of the moon landings was produced from lower-quality copies of the originals stored in a frozen NASA vault in Houston.

Now however, expert image restorer Andy Saunders has worked his way through 35,000 images in a painstaking fashion to bring to these images to life like never before.

You’ll see detailed shots of Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong from the first moon landing (Apollo 11) as well as the the Apollo 13 crew struggling to get their stricken transit back in one piece.

There’s much more than that besides, with images also from missions pre-dating Apollo also featured. Amazingly, this is not a book which has been driven or funded by NASA itself. The agency has an open-source policy, so anyone can access the image scans – but nobody had done so before.

If you’re a space fanatic this is a book which will be manna to you, but even if you’re not, the photography work is simply sublime.

Buzz Aldrin’s portrait of Neil Armstrong, moments after their historic moonwalk.

Buy now from Amazon UK

Buy now from Amazon US

The Book of Veles by Jonas Bendikssen

ISBN: 9781910401613

An intriguing exploration of a town in the epicentre for fake news production. Or is it? A project which fooled the photography community and is perhaps a sign of things to come.

Buy now from Amazon UK

Omar Victor Diop by Omar Victor Diop

ISBN: 978887439932

Stunning and vibrant, the studio portrait photography of Omar Victor Diop is breathtakingly brilliant. Primarily using himself as a model, this book weaves together the past and present of Black African history.

Buy now from Amazon UK

The Photograph That Changed My Life by Zelda Cheatle

ISBN: 9781739913403

Curated by AP regular Zelda Cheatle, more than 50 acclaimed photographers, musicians, filmmakers, and collectors describe their life-changing encounters with a single photograph.

Buy now from Amazon UK

Fox: Neighbour, Villain, Icon

ISBN: 9780956819635

An extensive and beautiful collection of urban foxes by night, including photos of them hunting rats, standing on garden walls, sleeping on grassy verges, or sitting at ease while London’s traffic roars by.

Buy now from Amazon UK

Modern Forms: An Expanded Subjective Atlas of 20th Century Architecture by Nicholas Grospierre

ISBN: 9783791388106

This celebrated tour of modernist architecture has been expanded to include the whole globe. A must-see for architectural photography fans.

Buy now from Amazon UK

The Mennonites by Larry Towell

ISBN: 9781910401538

A new edition of Towell’s masterful documentation of the Mennonite community near his home in Ontario, Canada. A powerful and poignant black and white project that oozes class.

Buy now from Amazon UK

The Mindful Photographer by Sophie Howarth

ISBN: 9780500545539

Offered as an antidote to the millions of images created to document every single second of every single day. Encouraging everyone to slow down and experience photography in a different way, this is a lovely book for those looking for a new approach.

Buy now from Amazon UK

Light on the Riviera: Photography of the Cote d’Azur

ISBN: 9783961713950

Far from a simple travel edition, this book brings together photography from some of the biggest names in photographic history, all drawn to the beauty of the region for different reasons.

Buy now from Amazon UK

Naturally, although we do our best to cover every photography book published, we can’t possibly hope to spot – or indeed – cover everything. So, if there’s something that you feel we’ve missed and you’d like to recommend it to other readers, feel free to let us know via the usual communication methods and we might be able to share further recommendation.

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The post Best photography books of 2023 appeared first on Amateur Photographer.

Out of the Ordinary: the life and work of Roger Bamber

Ailsa McWhinnie — Fri, 18 Aug 2023 14:45:49 +0000

Certain photographers become intrinsically linked with a particular place. Ansel Adams and Yosemite, Weegee and New York, Brassaï and Paris… I realise, as I walk through my home city, which is sparkling in the sunshine and with the anticipation of the annual festival, that Roger Bamber’s connection with Brighton and Hove is every bit as significant. Over some 50 years, he worked the seafront, the streets and the environs of this dynamic place, turning his eye to the quirks of its inhabitants in a way that has never been replicated.

Before his death in September 2022, Roger was working on a book and accompanying exhibition. It’s this show, at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, that I am on my way to see – and it’s here that I meet journalist Shân Lancaster, Roger’s partner and wife of nearly 40 years. They first met when they worked at The Sun and collaborated on many stories over the years. ‘Roger had always meant to do a book,’ Shân says. ‘Time was getting on and he hadn’t been well. When we got the publishing deal, the first thing he did was ask the museum if they could do an exhibition. They immediately said yes.’

The Station Under the Station by Roger Bamber

Born in Leicester in 1944, Roger had a lifelong fascination with trains and as a young boy he would go on trainspotting excursions with his father. There was a family camera but he was only allowed to use it when his dad didn’t want it. Roger was more interested in graphic design and technical drawing – an influence that can be seen across his photography – but at the age of 12 or 13, he got a paper round. ‘He often got to the newsagent early, while they were sorting the papers out,’ Shân explains. ‘He’d look through them and wonder how the pictures were taken and why they’d been chosen. He’d say to himself, “That one’s better than that one,” so in many ways was teaching himself about photography.’

Precise approach

Anyone who has ever worked with Roger on a story, or who has been photographed by him, can testify as to his exacting approach. ‘Excruciating,’ as Shân puts it. And although he was renowned for this illustrative style of photography, he in fact cut his teeth on the hard stuff when he was taken on by the Daily Mail at the age of around 20. He found himself in an environment that meant he had to get the shot, no matter what.

‘He was the youngest on the staff by miles,’ says Shân. ‘He’d come from a graphic background, taking pictures of trains and composing very carefully. But the minute his feet hit the ground on a newspaper, he realised what a rush it was to bank the picture. He loved the competitive element of it. But he was one of the few people I met who could combine having the sort of eye and the patience to construct a perfect picture with being absolutely able to drop everything and smash straight in and still get a brilliant frame. Everyone loved working with him because he was great on hard news – most people dreaded working with him on features because he was so bloody nitpicking!’

Last Tin Mine Pithead by Roger Bamber

She cites one example where he photographed sculptor Bruce Williams. Instead of simply placing him next to his laser-cut pieces of work that depicted athletes in action, Roger made him leap over the panels – again, and again, and again… The next day, when he rang Bruce to thank him, the artist was in so much pain he was unable to make it to the phone…

Bamber didn’t only put others in uncomfortable positions, however. He would do it to himself, too, if it meant capturing an image that would stay in people’s minds. There are not only his images taken from the tops of the Severn and Clifton Suspension bridges, but also one taken during an altitude attempt by microlite enthusiast Rod Jenkins. It was only after Roger had lost a 36-exposure roll of film to the wind that he realised his pilot had taken him – on this ‘lawnmower with wings’ – higher than the would-be record-breaker.

Running out of Steam by Roger Bamber

All of these images were taken after Roger moved to Brighton in 1973 (to a house overlooking the station – a trainspotter’s dream), and being in the city meant he could travel across southern England in pursuit of a story, but his new home became the focus of his photography and in 1999 the council commissioned him to produce a body of work to support Brighton and Hove’s city status bid.

‘He was given free rein to be as inventive as he liked,’ Shân recalls. ‘He came up with the idea of photographing a person born in each decade leading up to the year 2000. It started with a 90-year-old man playing bowls in Hove and ended with a newborn baby at the hospital. The images were all over the London Underground – everywhere.’ The bid was successful and the University of Brighton subsequently awarded Roger an honorary degree.

It would be easy to think that someone who shot as much film as he did, with only the most minuscule alterations between each frame, is demonstrating a lack of confidence in their vision. But for Roger, it was the reverse. There was a total conviction about the way he worked and a certainty that his response to whatever was unfolding in front of him could be translated onto a piece of film with the utmost precision. Referring to one image in the show, Shân says, ‘On the contact sheet, there’s a whole sequence of almost identical ones, but a great big circle around this one.’ When he’d captured it, he knew he’d captured it.

Street Stomp by Roger Bamber

The move to colour

Roger is, of course, known for his black & white work. And if there’s one style that crops up consistently in his work it’s the silhouette – no doubt a throwback to his grounding in graphic design and technical drawing. In many ways, he would analyse a scene not for the ‘thing’ he was photographing, but the shape it was making in the frame. And that applied whether he was shooting a piece of art or a rock star.

However, during his career, the newspaper world made the transition into colour and then digital. I ask Shân whether monochrome was where his heart lay, or whether he didn’t really mind. Her reply is unequivocal: ‘Oh, he really did mind. He was horrified when he was told he was going to have to go colour, and he thought he’d have to rethink everything. And to go digital as well was a massive jump. There were a couple of hiatus years where he was having to get used to the new technology – it was very, very difficult and he practically had a nervous breakdown. But once he’d managed to change gears, he really took to it – and, of course, he was brilliant at it.’

Shadow Skaters by Roger Bamber

It was partly thanks to the support of the many friends he had made during his career that he was able to make the transition, as Shân explains. ‘He had no side,’ she says. ‘An awful lot of Fleet Street photographers are absolutely impossible – bless them – because they are so conscious of their status and they treat local photography with great condescension, but Roger treated everyone as a friend. He made friends with all the local snappers, so they responded to him and helped. If he’d been more arrogant and “Fleet Streety”, they’d probably have said, “You sink or swim, sunshine”.’

Sadly, towards the end of his life, Roger became unwell and found it more and more painful to walk, and then had a stroke that resulted in the loss of his balance and also the sight in one eye. Lockdown was also very difficult for someone whose life revolved around interactions with others, and Shân paints a picture of a frustrated man who would sit on the doorstep to their small front garden, chatting with any neighbours who passed by. Roger died of lung cancer in Sussex County Hospital, in September 2022, at the age of 78.

Smokescreen by Roger Bamber

On my way home, my attention was again drawn to the preparations for the Brighton Festival, and how Roger would have been giddy with excitement about the photographic potential. His desire to connect with people – to interact, to learn about their passions, to be curious – runs through his 50-year body of work. And in the exhibition and book, which sadly he didn’t live to see completed, we were afforded an insight into his full and fascinating life. There’s his employment card from his paper round as a boy, and a grid of the dozens of press passes that gave him access to the stories that would become his photographs. There is colour, there is black & white, hard news, features – and, of course, his beloved Brighton, in all its sometimes grey, sometimes dazzling, always characterful glory. It’s a fitting tribute to the photographer who the late Guardian picture editor, Eamonn McCabe, who died suddenly only a month after Roger, called, ‘The picture editor’s dream.’

Roger Bamber: Out of the Ordinary is on at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery until 3 September, entry £9 (which includes an annual pass to the museum) visit brightonmuseums.org.uk. The book of the same name is published by Unicorn Publishing Group, price £40.

You can also check out more exhibitions here.

Have you read these articles:

International Portrait Photographer of the Year 2023 winners revealed

10 Reasons why every photographer should shoot weddings

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The post Out of the Ordinary: the life and work of Roger Bamber appeared first on Amateur Photographer.

Alternative landscape photography tips – see in a new light

Tracy Calder — Fri, 27 Jan 2023 10:18:07 +0000

Conventional bucolic views of the British countryside only tell half the story, says Tracy Calder. By adopting a new mindset, we can find beauty in even the bleakest corners of the land. She takes a look at the book This Pleasant Land: New Photography of the British Landscape. Plus, shares guidance on an alternative approach to landscape photography.

The British Landscape

In his wonderful book The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America, Bill Bryson describes his experience of the British landscape. ‘For months the sky had remained a depthless grey. Sometimes it rained, but mostly it was just dull, a land without shadows. It was like living inside Tupperware.’

Anyone who lives on this North Atlantic island will be familiar with the ‘depthless grey’ Bryson refers to. While we might dream of dramatic skies and colourful sunsets, most of the time we go about our daily business under a dispiriting blanket of white. As photographers, we deal with this ‘Tupperware’ effect by adding an ND grad, hoping to eke out some drama. But dramatic and bucolic views of the British countryside only tell half the story.

In reality, the British landscape has been heavily shaped by human hands for centuries: quarries pockmark hills, fences criss-cross fields and roads slice through woodland. Arts and culture writer Rosalind Jana agrees. ‘In its wilder hinterlands we might think that it remains untouched, but our fingerprints – real and imagined – are all over it.’

China Clay Pit, Rocky, Ivybridge, England, 2018. © Jethro Marshall

Jana provided the text for This Pleasant Land: New Photography of the British Landscape (published by Hoxton Mini Press). The book contains projects that form a post-millennium portrait of Britain where ‘Tupperware’ skies are not just tolerated but actively sought out. ‘This selection of fine art photography captures the beautiful, the bleak, the uncontainable and the marginal,’ says Jana.

It’s an exploration of overlooked corners, from the humble hedgerow to WWII pillboxes and shapeshifting floods. There’s an overriding sense that the landscape is in a state of flux – people come and go, boundary lines are drawn and redrawn, tides nibble away at the fringes of land. The photographers selected for the book present their own personal ‘reading’ of the landscape.

Each image is an expression of their memories, associations, interests and, at times, preferences. None of these artists are interested in the chocolate box view of the landscape. ‘Instead, they raise questions about how we inhabit it, own it, work it, protect and destroy it,’ says Jana.

Glencoul, Northern Highlands, Scotland, May 2016. © Nicholas JR White

Fingerprints of man

Each photographer has a story to tell – projects range from the autobiographical to the environmental and political. What unites them is a desire to be immersed in the landscape. To hear the cry of gulls as they descend on ploughed fields, to taste salt on the air as you approach the coast, to feel snow underfoot as you walk to a mountain bothy.

These are essential visceral experiences. Few of the views would be considered classically beautiful, but each photographer has found beauty in the scene – a shaft of light illuminating abandoned cars in a slate mine, cement cubes scattered on a beach like toy building blocks, a suburban hedge that looks like a Beefeater hat. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder after all.

One photographer who has found beauty where seemingly none exists is Paul Hart. For ten years he has been capturing the effects of large-scale agribusiness on the Fens in East Anglia. The area has always been popular with writers who, Jana argues, are attracted by the flat fields, ‘domed by an unrelenting sky’.

Walpole St Andrew, Reclaimed, England 2019. © Paul Hart

While it might seem ‘damply atmospheric’ to the likes of Graham Swift, most photographers seem less keen to embrace the tilled fields and monocultural crops here. Hart, however, is an exception. Through a triptych of projects evocatively titled Farmed, Drained and Reclaimed, Hart uses a Hasselblad loaded with black & white film to describe how farming has shaped the region. ‘Many of Hart’s images have a ghostly feel, full of misted horizons and bare trees,’ says Jana. ‘They often feature lines vanishing into the distance: electrical cables, narrow lanes, silver waterways, the hard ridges of tilled fields.’

Jethro Marshall’s work also celebrates manmade participation in the landscape. For him there’s beauty in the abstract brutalism of coastal defences and quarries. ‘His trademark monochrome imagery is sparing but unafraid of drama,’ says Jana. These sculptural structures are set against natural backdrops – a cliff stabiliser mirrors the shape of the rock face behind it, a curve of anti-tank cubes nestles into shingle.

‘Whether used as military defence or to ward against erosion, there is something powerful in this idea of protection,’ notes Jana. While shooting Rocky (Marshall’s quarry project) the photographer was often asked to leave the site – a bid to protect Marshall or something else entirely? ‘Much of this land is not as free to explore as we might hope or assume,’ concludes Jana.

Places, Seven Sisters, England, 2016. © Toby Coulson

Impact of the military

If you’ve ever come across an MOD red flag while out walking – indicating possible life-threatening activities – you may have wondered how military manoeuvres impact the British landscape. Some military sites have the potential to become reservoirs of biodiversity, but others support ‘temporary’ structures that have been left to decay. Photographer Richard Brine used a combination of satellite imagery and local hearsay to pinpoint a number of Britain’s remaining 6,000 pillboxes (there were once around 30,000).

These concrete forms were built during WWII to defend Britain, but, according to Jana, ‘Many now house sheep (or furtive teenagers looking for somewhere to smoke).’ Brine has a background in architectural photography, and this preoccupation with precision (and the use of a large-format camera) carries over into his pillbox project. These defences may be dressed in moss and ivy, but Brine’s compositions are full of clean lines and negative space.

Melanie Friend is another photographer who explores how war is embedded in the British landscape. For her 2020 book The Plain, she made repeat visits to the chalk grasslands of Salisbury Plain, ‘a preparation ground for war’ since 1897. Here Friend captured the eerie presence of rusty tanks, battered telephones and stark warning signs. Her contribution to This Pleasant Land has a similarly disquieting air. For this project she travelled around the country attending air shows, which Jana describes as, ‘the respectable face of war’.

In this context, we see war as spectacle. ‘I remember feeling very sad on one particular beach – just this sense [that] here we are watching these planes as entertainment,’ recalls Friend. ‘In other countries people are terrified by what’s in the sky: the bomber, the fighter jet, the drones.’ On the ground, alongside the photographer, we stare up at the sky tracking the dark silhouettes of planes as they perform for our entertainment.

Avro Lancaster bomber (part of a Battle of Britain memorial flight), Southport Beach, Merseyside, England, 24 July 2011. © Melanie Friend

Effects of climate change

Floods, wildfires and droughts used to feel like problems that only (directly) affected the Southern hemisphere, but climate change has brought extreme conditions closer to our door. In 2022, for example, the NFCC (National Fire Chiefs Council) estimated that there were more than 500 wildfires in England and Wales – twice as many as the previous year.

Spencer Murphy spent summer 2018 recording wildfires as they transformed the landscape into an apocalyptic vision. In his images, patches of green are rare – the earth is blackened and charred, wounded and scarred. Yet there is a strange beauty in this disturbance of nature: the smoke in the air leads to muted colours, the skeletal vegetation provides focal points. ‘There is a weird beauty in it…Not like the surface of the moon, but maybe another planet,’ says Murphy.

Max Miechowski also documents the consequences of extreme weather – in this case the effects of coastal erosion. Along the coast of Britain there are pockets of land being lost to the sea at an alarming rate. ‘Gardens disappear overnight, as landslides redraw the boundary between ground and water,’ says Jana.

Land’s End, England, 2003. © Robin Friend

Buildings cling to the land as it slips beneath them, cracks widen in roads, landslides create otherworldly scenes. ‘I felt very much on the precipice…[with] this idea of being on a particular piece of land that will not exist in the future,’ admits Miechowski. ‘Once it’s gone, it’s really gone.’ But, once again, there is beauty in this shifting, impermanent environment. Miechowski often slept in his car to catch the sunrise. His pictures have a warmth and softness that acts as both a salve and a warning of what we stand to lose.

This collection of fine art photographs offers an alternative view of the British landscape. A place where people picnic by the side of the road, quaff beers in pillboxes, and plough, drain and slice the land to suit their own (temporary) needs. But that doesn’t mean it’s a bleak landscape. If you adopt the right mindset there is genuine beauty to be found in every puddle, hedge, house and ditch.

Imber Village Open Day, Merrie Albion, Wiltshire, England, 3 August 2013. © Simon Roberts

5 Tips for alternative landscape photography

Experiment with mono

Paul Hart and Jethro Marshall documented our human impact on the landscape in black & white to emphasise form and texture. Their work has a sparing quality about it, which really draws attention to every line and element in the composition.

Put some legwork in

For his project Black Dots, Nicholas JR White walked to remote mountain bothies – always feeling the ground beneath his feet. On one occasion he hiked for six hours through the Cairngorms, before camping out for three days to get his picture.

Look to the skies

Sometimes the land can only be truly understood when it’s set against the sky, and photographer Melanie Friend takes this to extremes. In her pictures of air shows our feet are firmly planted on the ground, but our attention is in the clouds.

Show the people

Most of the photographers in This Pleasant Land focus on the imprint we make on the landscape, but few pictures contain people. Alex Ingram, by contrast, captures portraits of island wardens as they go about their work.

Seek inspiration outside of photography

Harry Cory Wright’s images have the formalism of classical paintings. Wright uses a 10x8in camera and the cost of film is one factor that makes him slow down and appreciate each step of the process.

Alternative landscape photography: how to see landscapes in a new light

Rise early

Max Miechowski slept in his car to catch the sunrise, Simon Roberts travelled around in a camper van, Nicholas JR White camped out in the cold. Put the effort in and you will be rewarded.

Talk to the locals

For his pillbox series, Richard Brine asked locals for their advice and combined this with satellite data to pinpoint the exact location of the defences he wanted to photograph.

Embrace serendipity

Sometimes it’s good to introduce an element of chance. Toby Trueman, for example, captures beautiful long-exposure seascapes. But instead of tracking the tides he just turns up to see what the shore reveals.

Stay curious

As children, we have a desire to see what’s around the corner, but in adulthood this seems to diminish. Ian Potter, however, encourages an appreciation of overlooked patches and a natural curiosity to see what’s around the bend.

Remain grounded

If you’re faced with an expanse of flat and empty land, much like Paul Hart was in the Fens, look for elements that will ground the space – trees, pylons or the ‘line’ of a furrow in a field.

Near Strathpeffer, Ross-shire, Scotland, January 2017. © Iain Sarjeant

Ignore obvious beauty

The colourful Americana of amusement parks, piers and fairgrounds can be alluring, but try to look beyond the surface. Rob Ball, for example, looks for evidence of weathering and decay in seaside attractions.

Keep close to home

After the restrictions of the past few years, many of us are keen to travel long distances for our photography fix. However, photographers like Iain Sarjeant are keen to prove that there are adventures right on our doorstep.

Stay in the margins

Joseph Wright, Paul Hart and Ian Potter are all fine examples of photographers who have found great riches in the hedgerows, ditches and hinterlands of Britain. Explore marginal places for maximum gain.

Shift your perspective for an alternative view of the landscape

Simon Roberts makes work that understands the landscape as an active process. To gain greater control over the narrative he often stands on his camper van roof to shoot.

Don’t fear change

Landscapes undergoing transformation make great subjects. Think Max Miechowski and his coastal erosion project. Spencer Murphy and his wildfire series and Joseph Wright’s images of flooded woodland.

This Pleasant Land: New Photography of the British Landscape, with text by Rosalind Jana, is published by Hoxton Mini Press.

Also available here.

Feeling inspired? View our landscape photography tips and get shooting some spectacular shots!

Similarly, if you are new to landscapes, check out our beginners guide to Landscape Photography.

Improve your landscape photography

Put your landscape photography to the test. Learn more alternative landscape skills on one of our upcoming landscape photography vacations. Including Isle of Skye with Jeremy Walker, Faroe Islands with Serkan Günes and Lofoten Winter Magic with Serkan Günes & Florian Warnecke. See all upcoming landscape photography holidays here.

Face Time: history of portrait photography book reviewed

Amy Davies — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 10:25:54 +0000

Philip Prodger’s book Face Time explores the history of portrait photography. He tells Amy Davies all about this enduring subject

A compelling and comprehensive guide to the photographic portrait, Face Time is a new book by Philip Prodger. In it, he expertly walks us through a history of the portrait photography genre. From photography’s invention right up to the present day. He does this with care, consideration and a decent dash of humour to boot.

Currently a Senior Research Scholar at the Yale Center for British Art, his varied career as a curator in a number of prestigious institutions perfectly places him to write the book. Maybe none more so than his stint as Head of Photographs at the National Portrait Gallery in London.
Earlier this month, I was able to put my questions about a genre which is described by Philip as ‘one of the most difficult undertakings in art’ to him. Pleasingly, he responded to them with the same warmth, wit and care that is is displayed in abundance throughout his book.

Kensuke Koike and Thomas Sauvin, ‘Untitled #21 from the series No More, No Less’, 2016-2017. Image credit: Kensuke Koike and Thomas Sauvin

History of Portrait photography – what is a portrait?

The most obvious question to start with for somebody like Philip is to lay the groundwork and decide exactly what is a ‘portrait’. Aside from a straightforward definition as a picture of a person – the answer may not be as simple as you might expect. Philip says, ‘I think if you asked different curators you would get different answers to this question. But, for me, the difference is capturing something of a person’s identity – not just the way they look, not just the physicality of their features, but actually something of their personality, who they are and how they’re different from other people.’

At AP, we admittedly have a tendency to draw quite hard divisions between the photographic genres. In our portrait premium issues of the magazine we focus on portrait photography; with other similar or overlapping genres, like street and documentary, perhaps not traditionally falling into the same category and usually meriting a special of their own. As an academic and interrogator of contemporary practice however, Philip has a different opinion.

Floyd Rankins, Theopholus Bracket, Old Swampscott Fisherman, n.d., gelatin silver print. Image courtesy of the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA.

‘Frankly, in this century, there are no longer any bright lines between these different divisions – and I think that’s all for the best. I’m not sure that social documentary, or street photography, is a very satisfactory term on its own – but there’s no question that there are many portraitists who are working out in the world, in the communities, out on the street and they’re photographing people and showing us something about their story.’

How to make a great portrait photograph

Probably as anyone who undertakes the genre will tell you, portraiture is not easy. That’s not to say there isn’t skill in other genres, but it’s a simple fact that pointing your camera at a beautiful landscape, odds are you’re going to get a decent shot. The same can’t be said for pointing your lens at a person. With so many variables at play, it’s no wonder Philip describes it in the book as so tricky to master.

He explains, ‘I think that a great portrait is like a dance. You have the volition of the photographer, and the will and personality of the sitter. It’s about finding and negotiating that space. That’s an incredibly difficult thing. You’ve a kind of push and pull that’s going back and forth between the photographer and sitter, and finding that moment where you capture something unique and special is very difficult indeed.

‘I would also add that we ask an awful lot from portraits. We want our portraits to tell us something fundamental about the sitter, but we’re confining ourselves to whatever the exposure time is of that photograph – perhaps 1/60th of a second. The idea that you could condense everything that’s worth knowing about a person at that moment into 1/60th of a second is just absolutely extraordinary. A photographic portrait is uniquely powerful in that somehow that tension, where you have to condense everything down to a millisecond, makes it resolve somehow. When the photograph falls into place, it’s like no other form of communication.’

The sad news for readers of AP looking to recreate some of the great masters of portraiture is that defining how to achieve all of the above is nigh-on impossible. ‘I’m not sure I could put it into words,’ confirms Philip. ‘It’s one of those things, when you see the photograph and you’re moved, and you know you’ve seen a great photograph – but there’s no formula. There’s so many different ways of making a portrait. It can be done in the studio, it can be done in the street, it can be done with careful planning, it can be spontaneous. There’s no single recipe that will you get you to a great portrait photograph.’

Weronika Gesicka, Untitled #32, 2016 from the Traces series, 2015-2017. Courtesy Weronika Gęsicka and JEDNOSTKA Gallery

History of portrait photography vs today’s culture

There’s an interesting section in Face Time which discusses both the male gaze and the colonial gaze. These oft-controversial topics split opinions frequently – some will roll their eyes at a so-called ‘woke agenda’, while others will ferociously argue for our awareness of the issues. It’s safe to say that Philip lands somewhere near the latter. ‘We just need to be aware of the practices of the past,’ he explains. ‘I’m really struck that even when I was a younger curator, the things that male photographers thought were okay, they no longer think is okay – and you know what, the world is better for it.

We need to be absolutely careful that we’re not excluding anyone, and that we are embracing the fullness of human experience and treating people as equal. That’s actually what I think is so fabulous about portrait photography – we are all equal before the lens. Photography can be such a powerful tool to be welcoming and inclusive, to include all kinds of different perspectives.

So much ink has been spilled over the male and colonial gaze – and you know, much of it is absolutely right. But as a photographer, the question going forward must be how are we going to improve our practices and make our photography that much more interesting, compelling and inclusive.’

Zanele Muholi, Ntozakhe II, Parktown, 2016. Courtesy of Stevenson, Amsterdam/Cape Town/Johannesburg and Yancy Richardson, New York/© Zanele Muholi

Portrait photography and the Taylor Wessing prize

Moving on to another sometimes controversial topic – the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize, organised by the National Portrait Gallery. This annual, prestigious portrait prize has been the leading international portrait competition for almost two decades. As the NPG’s former head, Philip was heavily involved in it, and is no stranger to the criticism oft-levied at the awards. Namely that all of the subjects tend to look depressed, miserable or at the least, far too serious.

Indeed, AP has published opinion pieces and received numerous letters from readers decrying the lack of smiles at the annual awards. In Face Time, Philip references neutral expressions tending to be taken more seriously, so it seems that the two are intrinsically linked. He laughs, perhaps somewhat knowingly, at my suggestion that this neutrality is mistaken for misery.

‘You know, I would turn it around. I’d say that there are all different emotional expressions that are really powerful and alive – and it’s not that neutral expressions are not, but there’s a sort of convention in photography that people will have those neutral expressions. It dates back to the 19th century, where a smile wasn’t possible due to slow exposure times.

‘But I’d also say that it’s really hard – in some ways it’s harder – to make a photograph that is compelling of a smiling person or a laughing person. I love them, and when I was involved with Taylor Wessing, we were always looking for photographs like that for that reason, because it does become sort of a convention. But, as I say in the book, there is this idea that if you’re sitting for a formal portrait, you want to be sort of all potentialities.

You don’t want to choose your ground. You can be happy, you can be sad, you can be angry – all of these things exist as potential within you, so you might just show the neutral and then you haven’t committed to any particular emotion. But… as you say, sometimes that can look a little bit grim.

‘I’m totally sympathetic to the suggestion, but at the same time, if one went back and looked at the actual successful portraits every year, I think you’d see a certain percentage of them are very emotional, and we were not at all interested in creating something that was a sort of study in misery.’ So there we have it.

Tania Franco Klein, Plane (self-portrait) from Proceed to the Route, 2018. Image credit: Tania Franco Klein

Emotion in portrait photography

Emotion is unquestionably an integral part of portrait photography. Prodger’s doctoral thesis, studied at Cambridge University, explored the role of photography in Charles Darwin’s study of emotions. A century and a half later, I’m interested to know where we get the ‘most real’ portraits – are studio portraits somehow less real, when the environment is stripped away? Maybe the opposite is true, and without the distraction of a background, we can truly see into the human psyche. Perhaps wishing to avoid committing too fully, Philip offers ‘it depends on the sitter’ as an answer.

‘Some people are very self-conscious. And the other side of that is that some photographers are very good at making the sitter feel comfortable and confident. That’s one of the reasons that professional portrait photographers do so well, is because they have a way of engaging with the sitter.

At the same time, part of being a celebrity – if we’re talking about people who get photographed all the time – is learning to deal with the studio and be okay with it. Some people, such as me for example, I’m horrible in the studio. It would be much better to catch me out in the world doing my thing. The studio is a very unnatural situation, and I think results from it are almost miraculous, or magical really.’

Sarah Jones, The Dining Room (Francis Place) I, 1997, Colour coupler print. Courtesy Maureen Paley, London, © Sarah Jones

Portrait photography: editing

Yet another controversial topic in portraiture is the subject of editing. There seems to be something inherently more moralistic about using image manipulation when it comes to photographs of people, compared to say a landscape, or a macro subject. It’s also true of course to say that manipulation is nothing new – for any subject. In the book for instance, Philip references From Charwoman to Dowager by Cecil Beaton – a set of three images from the 1930s which show just how fundamentally a photograph could be transformed using common darkroom techniques.

The woman in the picture has been slimmed down, her hairline lowered and thinned, her double chin removed. Sounds familiar in modern times, doesn’t it? Given our earlier discussion about what exactly is a portrait, I ponder whether when something – or someone – has been changed beyond all recognition, whether it can still bear the name portrait at all. Philip says it can – but once again it depends. ‘My personal opinion is that it depends on the photograph.

Tom Hunter, Woman Reading a Possession Order, 1997, Ilfochrome print. Ilfochrome print. Photo Tom Hunter

You said “beyond all recognition”, but that’s a very loaded term. Portraits can be very abstract – they don’t necessarily have to look like the physiognomy of the person being photographed. I’m not of the school that it ceases to be a portrait if you can no longer automatically easily recognise the figure. I think it depends on the intent of the artists and how successful they’ve been in presenting that essence of the individual. There’s an idea in art that representation doesn’t necessarily have to mean figurative exactness, that in fact, representation can mean some of those qualities about a person that a picture can elicit and they don’t have to be strictly representational.’

Final thoughts

Face Time is a book that’s been in the works for quite a while. It’s not just the often relatively slow pace of book publishing we’re talking about here, but says Philip, it stretches back even further. ‘It goes back to my earliest days as a curator and a scholar,’ he explains. ‘There’s bits in there that go back to my doctoral thesis. In fact it was great fun to put the book together, as I was able to draw along every stop of the way of my career. I pulled out photographs from every institution I’ve worked out. Of course the viewer doesn’t have to know that – it’s not particularly interesting for them – but for me it was a great privilege.

Münchner Stadtmuseum Josef Albert, Hedgehog and Hare, from the Fairy Tale Ball, 1862. Image credit: Münchner Stadtmuseum

‘The actual book started before Covid. It took several years to pull it together, and is one of those projects that would probably have been done sooner were it not for the pandemic. That said, this period of time that we’ve just been through – with the shutting down of certain kinds of social interactions and intensifying of others; it’s really poignant. I think it’s a really good book to read in the wake of Covid (let’s hope it’s the wake) – it really brings home a lot of these issues around social interaction – and portrait photography is nothing but social interaction.’

Philip perhaps sums it up best in the book itself: ‘Ultimately, all portrait photography is social. Like all art, portraiture has many different and sometimes overlapping purposes. Arguably the most notable, powerful and enduring is also the simplest. It heals, comforts and strengthens – by reminding us we’re not alone.’

I can’t resist one last question before our enlightening conversation ends. The name of the book: is it a play on the Apple software, that among others, exploded in popularity over the past couple of years – or not? ‘No – it was not a play on the Apple product at all,’ Philip answers. ‘It was just an attempt to get out this question of faces, and 95% of all portraits zero in on the face – something which I discuss in the book.

The idea that the photographer is looking at the face, and then the face is looking at the photographer. Then, the image is displayed in print or on a screen, so the viewer is looking at the face. It’s a whole chain reaction of faces – and interpretation and expression… so we thought that was a good title.’

Face Time: A History of the Photographic Portrait by Philip Prodger is available to buy now. Published by Thames and Hudson, RRP £30. ISBN: 9780500544914

Also available here.

Best women photographers: an alternative history of photography

Tracy Calder — Mon, 16 Jan 2023 11:47:16 +0000

Setting out to produce an alternative history of photography was always going to be a challenge, but the team behind A World History of Women Photographers have managed it extremely well. Tracy Calder reports on the book celebrating some of the best women photographers in history below.

In 1939, Anita Conti (the first female French oceanographer) set sail on the cod-fishing boat Viking for a three-month voyage that would see her tossed around the North Atlantic. While trying to take notes and photographs of life in and on the ocean. Dressed in a sailor’s smock and white gloves, she clambered among the masts and ropes, recording the hardships of life at sea. From the loneliness to the physical challenges presented by storms and fierce winds.

During World War II, Conti headed out with the minesweepers, producing images that were eventually published in L’lIlustration, a weekly French newspaper. Before heading towards Africa, studying fauna and fishing techniques along the way. The challenges of shooting at sea were manifold. ‘Some films were developed in muddy and brackish waters; others dried too slowly in the damp shade of mosquito-filled huts,’ she recalls. ‘And I haven’t counted the number of shipwrecks with the cameras and their load of film.’

Conti was a remarkable woman. For more than 50 years she reported on the negative effects of industrial fishing, while still empathising with the very people contributing to the issue. And yet, shamefully, until I was handed a copy of A World History of Women Photographers – I had never heard of her.

Anna Atkins, Alaria esculenta, from Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype
Impressions, 1849-50. © The New York Public Library

Alternative history

Setting out to produce an alternative world history of photography is always going to be challenging. As soon as you are holding the finished article in your hand, the naysayers will pipe up and complain about who you have omitted or included. It’s all par for the course. However, it’s clear that historians Luce Lebart and Marie Robert – the powerhouses behind this project – have gone to extraordinary lengths to ensure this ‘re-reading’ is as comprehensive as possible. ‘This “world tour” enables us to re-evaluate some women who were celebrated and acknowledged in their time. To remember others now unjustly forgotten, and to discover others whose work was never exhibited or discussed during their lifetime,’ they say.

To help them make their final selection (comprising 300 women photographers), they called upon a network of experts and enthusiasts. Many of whom introduced them to artists in countries or continents where a lack of research, publications or exhibitions ultimately prevented them from showcasing or sharing their work. Continuing in this vein, the book features text from more than 160 female historians, critics, archivists, curators, photographers and writers. Thankfully, it is edited in such a way that there remains a central, sympathetic voice.

Nil Yalter, Turkish Immigrants, 10th Paris Biennial, 1977. © Courtesy the artist and Galerist, Istanbul

Being overlooked

Most people won’t read the book from beginning to end, as I did. But doing so allowed me to spot recurring themes and navigate my own path through this weighty tome. One of the key things that struck me was just how many excellent female photographers have been reduced to supporting acts or ignored entirely in favour of their spouses over the years. When Amélie Guillot-Saguez displayed her calotypes at a major exhibition in 1849, for example, the spokesman for the jury – who awarded the work a bronze medal – actually confused her with her husband!

Likewise, Constance Talbot (the wife of William Henry Fox) is known to have assisted her husband with many of his experiments in the negative/positive process. Yet is barely mentioned in the history books. ‘Many of these women remained throughout their lives in the shadow of a “master”, at the cost of seeing their own contribution erased from memory,’ echoes Robert.

Sandra Eleta, Putulungo and Alma, Portobelo couple, 1977. © Sandra Eleta. Courtesy Galerie Rouge, Paris

It would be nice to believe this behaviour belongs in the past, but German photographer Hilla Becher was experiencing the pain of being overlooked as recently as the 1960s. In fact, the first exhibition of Hilla and Bernd Becher’s photographs (held at the Ruth Nohl Gallery in Siegen) was titled Bernhard Becher: Fotos. To add insult to injury, in 1976, the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf offered Bernd a professorship. Hilla led sessions for the students both at home and in the lab, without ever being offered an official role at the art school.

Celebrating rulebreakers

It would be easy to fixate on the instances where women have been sidelined or assigned to the roles of muse, model or domestic support. But A World History of Women Photographers is so full of fabulous trailblazers, entrepreneurs and rulebreakers that there’s always something to prevent you from feeling dispirited. Alexandrine Tinne, for example, was a gutsy Dutch aristocrat whose passion for travel led her to take huge risks. ‘In Egypt, several boats had to be chartered to carry the clothes, bedlinen, supplies, items for barter, dinner services, weapons, and even a cast-iron bed,’ reveals curator Mattie Boom.

Nair Benedicto, Kissing at a Mario Zan concert, São Paulo, 1978. © Nair Benedicto/N Imagens

Photography played a secondary role in Tinne’s life (she was mainly devoted to botany and ethnography). In the decade before she was murdered in the Libyan desert at the age of just 33, she produced 20 or so large-format views of The Hague. As well as a number of interior and portrait pictures that show what might have been.

Then there’s Dickey Chapelle. The American photojournalist described by art critic and editor Diana C Stoll as, ‘A wiry woman in cat-eye glasses, often sporting military fatigues, an Australian bush hat and pearl earrings, with a Leica in her hand and a wry smile on her lips.’ Chapelle wasn’t afraid to put herself in the centre of the action. She fearlessly reported from the battle zones of World War II. As well as on the ground in Vietnam, where she was eventually killed by a booby-trap explosive in 1965.

Zanele Muholi, Bona III, ISGM, Boston, from the series ‘Somnyama Ngonyama’, 2019. © Zanele Muholi. Courtesy Stevenson, Cape Town/Johannesburg and Yancey Richardson, New York

Paving the way

Of course, there are also the pioneers. Women who played significant roles in developing new photographic techniques, styles and genres. I particularly enjoyed the entry on French photographer Lady Frances Jocelyn. In 1841, Jocelyn was appointed Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Victoria.

The monarch was a keen collector and patron of photography. With a special passion for cartes-de-visite images, which she arranged in albums with her husband, Albert. It’s no surprise, then, to find Jocelyn using commercially produced cartes-de-visite cards in her work. But what makes it really stand out is the fact she combines them with her own watercolour paintings. In one piece, an image of Jocelyn’s face is positioned at the centre of an archery target. Her photocollages feel modern, despite the fact they were created more than a century ago.

Fast forward a few decades and British photographer Hannah Maynard was being equally playful with composites. At one point she managed to bring together 22,000 faces on the same sheet! (In later years her skills were recognised by the Victorian police department who employed her to produce mugshots.) Naturally, A World History of Women Photographers also features artists who have influenced the generations that followed them. Diane Arbus, for example, revolutionised the way we think about portraiture. While Claude Cahun’s exploration of appearance and identity impacted the work of Cindy Sherman and ORLAN.

Isabel Muñoz, Untitled, from the series ‘Bam’, 2005. © Isabel Muñoz

Courting controversy

No comprehensive guide to the history of photography can ignore the fact that some key figures courted controversy. German photographer Leni Riefenstahl, for example, produced some of the most effective examples of Nazi propaganda in existence. Something she continued to be proud of until the end. ‘Leni Riefenstahl embodies the anti-heroine par excellence. The incarnation of the artist ready to embrace all forms of transgression in order to achieve recognition,’ suggests lecturer Anaïs Feyeux.

Meanwhile, Danish photographer Mary Willumsen made a good living out of illegally selling erotic photographs of women in the form of postcards between 1914 and 1921. ‘She started producing staged nude portraits in the women’s section of the “Helgoland” outdoor public bathhouse outside Copenhagen,’ explains professor of photography Mette Sandbye. ‘The photographs were mass-printed by various postcard publishers, and sometimes sold as illustrations to magazines such as Vore Damer (Our Ladies).’

Pamela Singh, Tantric Self-Portrait in Jaipur #18, c. 2000–1. © Pamela Singh. Courtesy the artist and sepiaEYE, New York

The story of Bunny Yeager (who is sometimes credited as being the inventor of the bikini) is also worth mentioning. Yeager started her career as a pin-up girl and beauty queen. But went on to learn the craft of photography and create her own staged self-portraits. ‘In an era when women appeared as objects of desire crafted by and for men, Yeager’s work in this arena is a notable anomaly,’ says educator and art curator Sara Knelman. Yeager produced a series of successful ‘how-to’ photography books, most notably How I Photograph Myself (published in 1964).

The overriding message of A World History of Women Photographers seems to be that women were here all along. Inventing, experimenting, innovating and actively participating in the development of the medium. They were not just wives, objects of the male gaze, mothers or models. From sailors to war correspondents and adventurers, these women have battled to record and share their passions and stories.

Victoria Ivleva, Dosimetrist Yuri Kobsar climbs radioactive debris inside the fourth reactor at Chernobyl nuclear power plant, 1991. © Victoria Ivleva

‘These women were everywhere and recorded everything,’ agrees Robert. And yet, until recently, many of them were invisible – as far as historical accounts were concerned. Thanks to the team behind this epic book. A World History of Women Photographers is sure to play a significant role in creating a richer, more accurate and balanced narrative.

A World History of Women Photographers, edited by Luce Lebart and Marie Robert (ISBN 978-0-500-02541-3), is published by Thames & Hudson, price £60

Also available here.

New Brian May stereo photography book is here

Geoff Harris — Tue, 08 Nov 2022 11:10:13 +0000

Queen guitarist Brian May tells Geoff Harris how the pandemic inspired people worldwide to take great stereo photography. They are celebrated in a new book and exhibition.

As regular readers will know, Brian May is a passionate evangelist for stereoscopic photography, and has been since Queen broke through in the 1970s.

Forget chucking tellies out of hotel windows. He happily recalls, ‘I did a mixture of things when we were on the road, but one of the things I generally did when getting off a plane in a new city was to go and find the local sources of stereoscopic material. It sounds very geeky but it kept me happy!’

Stereoscopy is Good For You: Life in 3D is the latest book from Brian’s London Stereoscopic Company (LSC). It is a collection of ‘stereo’ pictures taken by people all over the world throughout the pandemic. There are some fantastic images in the book as you can see here (they are best viewed with Brian’s Owl viewer, available here).

One vision

First of all, we wondered if Brian was surprised by the huge response when LSC first put out the call on social media for images taken during the lockdowns.

‘To be honest, yes, I didn’t realise how far the message had got. As I say in the introduction to the book, this is a kind of evangelical effort. I still believe we can properly put stereoscopy on the map.

I thought it was great fun seeing what people did when they were in lockdown. Then it clicked, gradually, that what we were doing was gathering together inspiration for other people. Stereoscopic pictures are so much more evocative than “normal” ones and this book became a fantastic opportunity to show this off.’

Brian is also keen to stress that every photographer featured in the new book is an amateur photographer.

From Stereoscopy is Good For You: Life in 3D. Taken by: Tom Robinson.

‘The majority of LSC’s books have been historical,’ he says, ‘but this book is about photography for the common person, just as AP has set out its own agenda over the years. These are all amateurs who took part. They take stereoscopic pictures because they get a thrill, or a feeling of comfort or connection, or want to capture something that will evoke very strong emotions when they look at it later in life.’

It’s a hard life

In the introduction to the book, Brian notes how fascinating it was to see how so many of the photographers sent an apology for the quality of their work alongside their entry. Did Brian suffer from a similar insecurity with his adventures in stereoscopic photography?

‘That’s an easy question to answer. I get insecure about everything, including my music! I think all artists do. But the older I get the more I think that is an essential part of being an artist, they need this questioning and insecurity to keep updated their view on the world and how they fit into it.’

Stereoscopy is Good For You: Life in 3D. Taken by: Steven C.

Stereoscopy is Good for You comes in at nearly 200 pages and features hundreds of photographers. Yet it was a relatively small team of people at LSC that put it together, including Brian.

‘The whole of the LSC is only about six people, and five of us were involved in the book,’ he explains, ‘so it wasn’t a big team but it was a very hard-working one.

You feel a great responsibility when it comes to choosing the images. I don’t like being judgemental, and we just wanted to distil the best of everybody’s work. As it turned out, most of the people who submitted work are represented in some way, but of course some people put in irresistible work, so were featured more than once.’

‘Unlike our previous books,’ he continues, ‘these images came in with every conceivable kind of alignment, framing etc, so it was an enormous job editing each one to get it to the optimum point. The most important consideration was to avoid giving the reader a headache. You need to keep a firm watch on the convergence of the images and now they are aligned to avoid straining the readers’ eyes.

I worked with my “great accomplice” Denis Pellerin, spending hours and hours editing the images into a format which would be both beautiful and comfortable to look at.’

There is a wide choice of subjects in the book. However the images also reflect the limitations on people’s movement during the global lockdowns.

‘I was surprised by how much people got involved in the small things around them,’ Brian notes. ‘Some of the insect images are stunning, and it got me thinking that if it hadn’t been for the lockdowns, some of us wouldn’t have had the time to go into our gardens and explore. Perhaps the most enduring images are of pets – people got particularly close to their pets during lockdown and you really feel that bond.’

Stereoscopy is Good For You: Life in 3D. Taken by: Andrew Lauren.

Days of their lives

So which images are his personal favourites? ‘It’s hard to choose, but I love the coach and horses (see above). It’s breathtakingly beautiful when you look at it through the Owl viewer. You feel this rush of cold air, hear the crunch of the snow, sense the horses… We did consider it as a cover for the book, but went with the monarch butterfly, which we also love.’

As well as many images from Europe, Stereoscopy is Good for You features work from farther-flung places. ‘Stereoscopy seems to be popular in Japan, certainly in my sphere of influence, and there are some great photographers with whom I communicate with directly.

One in particular, Masuji Suto, has produced the wonderful i3D Steroid app (see below) as well as being a great photographer. South America delivered a lot of images for the book too, and there were lots from the US and Canada.

From Stereoscopy is Good For You: Life in 3D. Taken by: Masuji Suto.

‘A couple of images came from Russia too,’ Brian reveals, ‘and we debated whether to include them. In fact, the book had already gone to press by the time of the Ukraine invasion, but we wondered if we should have taken them out. But I thought, hey, these are images made by common people like us, and they have no influence on their government.

It’s the same with music. With Queen, we have always tried to play to the people and disregard the political situation. Music is about connecting people, and that’s our job, and it’s the same with photography. That said, none of us wants to put any kind of approval on what Russia is doing as a country right now. It’s an incredibly painful situation.’

A real eye-opener

Returning to image making, Brian strongly believes that exploring stereo photography can benefit more conventional photographers, too. ‘This may sound corny, but taking stereo pictures does open your eyes. You see in a different way, as you need to imagine that you can see depth as well as everything else.

I now have an indelible disposition to look at scenes and see them “properly” in stereo. A lot of people go through almost their whole lives without realising they have this wonderful depth of perception. My job as the stereoscopic evangelist is to go, “No, there is a way you can transform your pictures into a format that will enable you to enjoy them forever as you did at the time of capture.”’

Does Brian think that some would-be exponents are put off by the time involved in stereoscopic photography? Or have apps made it much easier?

‘Yes to both,’ he says, ‘but the gap is closing. I can take stereo pictures so quickly now on my iPhone, which is something we talk about in the book. When I show the results, particularly to young people, they are gobsmacked and go around taking pictures of their friends all the time. So yes, it can be instant and can be so penetrating to take a stereo photo of your loved ones. In ten years you will think wow, it’s like I can see them or touch them.’

From Stereoscopy is Good For You: Life in 3D. Taken by: Conny Wetzig,

Brian then talks about his love for analogue photography. He first got the bug when developing and printing images with his father in the family darkroom. He has also memorable stereo images on analogue gear.

‘I have a wonderful antique stereo camera called a Rolleidoscop and the images I took of my kids when they were younger are beyond belief. You get such a strong sense of reality. There is still a magic about analogue and it’s the same in music… analogue has a different quality that you can’t quite get in digital.’

Brian is now 75, but shows little sign of slowing down. He continues to tour with Queen, as well as doing solo work and, of course, is a committed stereoscopy evangelist. So does he personally find stereoscopy is good for him?

‘Yes, it’s a much-needed stress reliever. I always take the equipment on tour with me and I edited a lot of the images for this book while on our last European tour. It’s a great escape, and less stressful than music performance, though I love both.’

From Stereoscopy is Good For You: Life in 3D. Taken by: Pascal Martiné.

We need it on phones

As mentioned at the start of this interview, Brian developed his own viewer for stereoscopy called the Owl. While it works well, he finds it frustrating that phone makers are not building a similar functionality into their phones.

‘I did a design to turn an iPhone into a stereo camera instantly,’ he reveals, ‘but nobody took me up on it. Yes, we now have the crowdfunded Qoocam, which is a nice stereo stills and movie camera, but it would be nice to have something built into phones.

We all carry them around with us. If phone makers can put three cameras on here (he holds up his iPhone) it would be dead easy for them to put lenses one across the other.’

If the book is a success, Brian is open to the idea of a follow-up, albeit with some caveats. ‘This was toughest book we have done. I have thought of some ways to make the process smoother but at the end of the day, you still have to sit and edit everything to the accuracy of a pixel. I hate seeing inaccuracies in stereo photography books, where some of the pictures are the wrong way round or give you headaches. I had to obsessively check for errors during numerous proofs; it really matters a lot to me.’

Brian May’s favourite app

‘I only use one, i3D Steroid for the iPhone (for Android phones, it’s called 3D Steroid). This is a very nice app and is very cheap, considering the developer, Masuji Suto, updates it for free. Suto-san is always open to suggestions too, a proper genius, and his pictures are also featured in Stereoscopy is Good for You.’ See the app store for your phone: i3DSteroid on the App Store/3DSteroid on Google Play.

Major new exhibition

Brian is steeped in the history of stereoscopic photography. We wondered, if push came to shove, who is his favourite exponent?

‘Ah, that’s easy – TR Williams, who was a master of his craft during the first stereoscopy boom in the 1850s. He had an exquisite eye for detail and composition, and pioneered his own chemical technique and ways of making the viewing cards. TR never advertised. He worked in this little studio where he made portraits and didn’t even have his name above the door, but people flocked there to have their stereo portraits done on daguerreotype.

I published his book Scenes in our Village, chronicling the village where he grew up as a child, and I want to do more to tell his fascinating life story. It’s on my bucket list.’

Last but not least, a leading London photography gallery is showcasing a selection of the images from the new book. The exhibition at Proud Galleries (located at Charing Cross) will run for five-months. It opened on 3 November and runs until 25 March, 2023. Book tickets at here.

Exclusive discount for AP readers

Stereoscopy is Good For You: Life in 3D book cover. Credit: LSC and Brian May.

Stereoscopy is Good for You: Life in 3-D features images of over 100 modern stereo photographers. These images were of subjects that lifted their spirits during lockdown. AP readers can get a 20% discount using code ap20 when purchasing the book from the London Stereoscopic Company Website. The offer lasts until 1 December, 2022.

Brian May & Denis Pellerin reveal plans for first International Stereoscopy Day

Brian May wants more of your stereo photos (but hurry up)

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The post New Brian May stereo photography book is here appeared first on Amateur Photographer.

New book explores how photography has shaped British identity

Isabella Ruffatti — Sun, 02 Oct 2022 09:30:39 +0000

Writer, curator, and photographer Gerry Badger’s superb new book “Another Country: British Documentary Photography Since 1945” brings together works taken by more than 160 photographers over the past 80 years.

Here, Badger talks to us about the book, the history of documentary photography after 1945, and its role in British society.

All photographers love to travel and make work in exotic places. Why not? It’s work and surrogate holiday in one. But it’s a truism to say that the best work done by a country’s photographers is documenting their homeland, or adopted homeland. That’s where they have the biggest stake.

So a history of postwar British documentary photography is a history of the country through specific eyes. Which is why the book is titled Another Country. It is not, and can never be an impartial view. And although a ‘documentary’ view, it is actually a complicated fiction, although that in general means a fiction aiming to tell a truth.

But what is ‘documentary’ photography? The traditional view is that it is inherently ‘straight’ photography – the photographer observes and reports on something, thus making a record of society. But many photographers talk about society in their work, fabricating the images like a film director, even making photographic collages.

Lewis Balts said photography was ‘a narrow but deep area between the film and the novel’; in this way one can embrace a wider definition of the documentary, viewing it as an attitude – a desire to talk about aspects of society – rather than a style as such.

British photography in the 1940s was clearly very different from today. It tended to be regarded as a ‘trade’ rather than an art form.

Art photography was strictly the province of the camera clubs, while professionals worked to get their imagery in print in the illustrated journals and magazines – the most prestigious of which prior to the 1960s was Picture Post, edited by Tom Hopkinson and employing such photographers as Bert Hardy, Thurston Hopkins, and Grace Robertson. That magazine closed in 1957, but after a brief hiatus it was replaced by the supplemental magazines of the more serious Sunday newspapers – The Times, Observer, and Telegraph.

David Bailey, Brian Duffy, and Terence Donovan became the star photographers in the commercial and fashion worlds, importantly representing photographers from working class backgrounds replacing upper middle-class figures like Cecil Beaton.

In reportage photography, David Hurn, Phillip Jones-Griffiths, and Ian Berry became members of the world’s most prestigious agency, Magnum, and together with such figures as John Bulmer, Patrick Ward, and Don McCullin working for the Sunday supplements gave British photography a greater reputation internationally.

Towards the end of the sixties, a new spirit infused British photography, the notion of the ‘independent’ photographer, largely eschewing commercial photography and using the medium as creative self expression, as a fully fledged art form.

Photography as art had been largely confined to the photographic salons of institutions like the RPS, and although any photographer would regard their imagery in a creative light, the notion of exhibiting photographs as works of art in galleries and museums only became widespread in the 1960s, first in America, and then in Britain in the 1970s.

But photographers working independently and largely disregarding editorial work needed support and the story of British photography in the seventies and eighties is one of the support mechanisms – critical, financial, educational, and institutional – being established to encourage this new spirit in British photography and young photographers embracing the medium.

In the early 70s, the Victoria and Albert Museum appointed a photography curator in Mark Haworth-Booth; Sotheby’s and Christie’s began to sell photographs as works of art; the Arts Council established a photography administrator, Barry Lane, to provide grants for photographers; and Sue Davies and Dorothy Bohm founded the Photographers’ Gallery in 1971, the first British public gallery to be dedicated solely to photography.

Davies and Bohm’s London enterprise was followed by others throughout the country, such as Val Williams’ Impressions in York. The critical discourse also changed. Two ‘art photography’ magazines, Creative Camera and the shorter-lived Album, essentially promoted the modernist-formalist approach of the American art museum, an approach taken up by young photographers whose aim was to make pictures in the way of artists.

Many were attracted to British themes, inspired by the street photography of Tony Ray-Jones, figures like Chris Killip, Homer Sykes, and Paddy Summerfield. Such work, usually street photography, if not downright documentary photography, was at least in the ‘documentary mode’. The idea of photography as a useful art runs persistently through the British medium.

The late sixties was the age of political protest, and this was also reflected in the critical discourse of the seventies. Politically minded photographers gravitated towards the Half Moon Gallery and collective in Whitechapel, whose critical journal Camerawork – the antithesis of Alfred Stiegiltz’s early 20th century art photography magazine of the same name – questioned the representational nature of the medium and how to turn it to more progressive ends.

The Half Moon photographers, amongst them Paul Trevor, Chris Steele-Perkins, Mike Abrahams, and Robert Golden, documented the protests and social conditions of the seventies, but the Whitechapel political documentary hotbed was important for another reason.

Inspired by the feminist movement and decades of neglect by the photographic establishment, a whole generation of women photographers established their institutions and added a strong and much-needed voice to British photography.

Britain had always produced great women photographers – Anna Atkins made the first photobook, Julia Margaret Cameron was arguably the finest portraitist of the 19th century, while Tudor Hart, Grace Robertson, Jane Bown, Lee Miller, and Shirley Baker made significant work, but it could be said that the seventies was the first time a coordinated phalanx of women photographers made a collective contribution. Notable figures from the 1970s include Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen, Markéta Luskacová, and Tish Murtha.

Seventies women photographers were often coordinated in a literal as well as psychological sense. For example, the Hackney Flashers Group, which included Jo Spence, Maggie Murray, and Sally Greenhill, worked to raise consciousness about women’s issues, an enterprise which culminated in their Who’s Holding the Baby exhibition in 1978, shown at various venues in 1979.

In their work, the group’s members questioned how much could actually be shown by traditional ‘documentary’ photography and sought to expand or move beyond the strict genre by employing such strategies as collage or staged photography.

Individuals also began to work in this way, such as Jo Spence (ex-Flashers), concentrating upon her own and woman’s health issues, and Karen Knorr, whose phototext pieces from the end of the decade looked at a demographic that was far removed from Whitechapel, wealthy Belgravia residents.

If the 1970s saw the support groups for women photographers established, the 1980s saw the general neglect of ethnic minority photographers at least partially ended with the establishment of the Association of Black Photographers in 1988.

As women had been, ethnic minority photographers had been working in British photography, with even less recognition, since the 1950s. Among the founder members of ABP were Sunil Gupta, Ingrid Pollard, and Rotimi Fany-Kayode. The establishment of their gallery, Autograph, under their director Mark Sealy, was as significant for British documentary photography as that of The Photographers’ Gallery or the Half Moon.

Two further notable developments mark 1980s photography. The Margaret Thatcher government gave documentary photographers a much-changed society to document or fight against, and much of this work was in colour. The use of colour catapulted such figures as Martin Parr, Paul Graham, Anna Fox, and Nick Waplington into the limelight, while others, Chris Killip or Graham Smith for example, continued to use monochrome.

What is important is that, largely for the first time, through international festivals and wider distribution of photobooks, British photographers became internationally known and respected. This has continued, as the internet has created a global photo village, although the examination of British life and its explaining to other societies would still seem to remain the most vital project for British photography.

Two standout points seem to have emerged from my examination of postwar British documentary photography – apart from the desirability of widening the notion of documentary itself.

First, after the War, photography turned inwards, as did all art, becoming more and more subjective. Perhaps it was also a recognition that there is no such thing as an objective photographer – so the documentary, objective report of the war becomes ‘my diary when embedded with the troops.’ And identity has become an ever more important subject alongside social and economic conditions.

Second, the contribution of immigrants to British photography has been profound. From Jews and other Europeans who came over in the 1930s – including our ‘greatest’ photographer, Bill Brandt – to West Indians in the 1950s and ’60s, and others from all over the world who are coming to live and work here. They have contributed immensely to the impressive diversity of the medium in this country, and given it an honoured place in the worldwide culture that is photography today.

In noting these two points, I come back to my original observation. The best subject for photographers living in Britain, as proven by British photography’s rich history, is surely Great Britain itself.

Another Country?

Another Country: British Documentary Photography Since 1945 by Gerry Badger is published by Thames & Hudson in collaboration with the Martin Parr Foundation: 19 May 2022, RRP £50 hardback. ISBN: 9780500022177.

Another Country: British Documentary Photography Since 1945 is out now on Thames and Hudson.

Related articles:

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The post New book explores how photography has shaped British identity appeared first on Amateur Photographer.

Liam Wong shares new book of cinematic cities at night

Steve Fairclough — Thu, 29 Sep 2022 12:20:36 +0000

Liam Wong has built a global reputation for his unforgettable images of cities at night, notably Tokyo. With his new book After Dark out in October, he shares his secrets with Steve Fairclough

You get a sense of the power that Liam Wong’s pictures possess when you realise his new book, After Dark, was backed by a crowdfunding campaign that reached over five times its initial £40,000 target. His previous tome, TO:KY:OO, focused on the Japanese capital and his neon-lit, cyber punk-style, night-time urban images evoked visions of classic sci-fi noir movies such as Blade Runner. But, for his latest book, Liam has gone for arguably slightly more subdued colours and has travelled around the world, shooting in cities such as Seoul, Paris, London, Chongqing, Osaka, Hong Kong and his hometown city of Edinburgh.

Liam Wong: After Dark

After Dark is his second monograph and, as with TO:KY:OO, it features cities shot in the small hours of the morning and has superb design with specially created typography (by Toshi Omagari) which, this time, was inspired by the work of legendary Chinese film director Won Kar Wai. The book also deliberately features Swiss binding, which allows its spine to lay flat and means the central parts of images running across spreads don’t get lost in the gutter of the book.

Paris Glow, Paris

Of After Dark, Liam explains, ‘There were all these places that I visited, but it wasn’t something that I necessarily thought, “Yeah, this is a series.” That was the difference. With TO:KY:OO it was three or four years of images of one city. But then online I would post, “Here’s London after dark,” “Here’s Osaka after dark.” At some point, I was like, “Well, what if I brought those together in a way that they all fit?”’

Just shy of 200 images fit together in After Dark, with the ‘Volume Edition’ cover featuring an image of Hong Kong that Liam shot back in 2017. ‘The cover is a funny one. I took that in 2017, which was during the whole time I was in Tokyo. I was so bad at low light back then, but it was one picture that I was really happy with. When I went to Hong Kong for the first time it was completely dark compared to what I was used to in Tokyo. At the time I only had kit lenses, which restricted me because both of them that I had were f/4, so it was very hard to let light in. As I got better at low light, then expanding my gear helped a lot but there are images in there that are as old as that.’

HK Mansions, Hong Kong – the image that features on the ‘Volume Edition’ cover of the After Dark book

Favourite city

Tokyo is clearly Liam’s favourite city and travel is obviously in his blood as he was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, worked as a video game designer for Ubisoft in Montreal, Canada, and spent all his time off travelling around the world. With the expansion of locations in his latest book Liam reveals, ‘I went to Chongqing – it was the first time I’d ever been in China.

Chongqing is a mega city – it’s this huge place that a lot of people haven’t heard of. What I found interesting was that after 8pm it would be quiet with nobody around. It kind of speaks to that culture of working and then getting ready for the next day. So, the types of things you do see are market workers going around the back streets and everyone preparing for the next day.’

‘The architecture in that city is so advanced but you still have the older [buildings], like temples and shrines – there’s this one rooftop temple that I remember seeing on my Google. I saw some other photographers had taken pictures and I really wanted to go there. It’s one of those cities that’s a real cyber punk place because of how quickly it has advanced. Going there was probably my favourite in recent memory, outside of places that I was already familiar with.’

Tokyo Glow, Tokyo

Aside from choosing which cities he wants to visit and work in at night, Liam is faced with challenges when shooting in the middle of the night. ‘Everything revolves around light and with that comes safety concerns because you’re walking around by yourself when it’s dark. That’s almost a bigger issue than capturing an image, you have to always be aware of your surroundings.’

He continues, ‘That reflects on the type of equipment I carry. I get asked a lot if I use a tripod and that’s one of the reasons that I don’t, because I don’t want to stand out too much. With low light one thing I got good at was being able to use my arms in a way that would act like a tripod but it meant I could shoot at a shutter speeds that allowed me to have more light come in, in a way that I also don’t have micro vibrations in my shot… I practised that. The only time I ever use a tripod is if I’m sure no one is around, whether it’s a monsoon or heavy rain, and I know that nobody is just going to appear randomly.’

Chongqing, China

Use of flash

Although his work is characterised by the use of available artificial street lighting, Liam does sometimes deploy flash. ‘Flash is perfect when you have a narrow alleyway which you can light up. I have a remote Cactus flash trigger and with that I use a GorillaPod that I can wrap around a doorway or a pipe, then I put gels on the flash. But it has to be somewhere narrow that I can light with the bounce [flash]. It’s a way to introduce colour into the scene that wasn’t there.’

With an Instagram following of over 220,000, Liam often uses social media to share his work and gain feedback. ‘I think about the life that a photo takes on after I share it. I always encourage people that follow my stuff to, if you have a creative block, take one of my shots and do whatever you need to do.’ Liam uses Instagram as a barometer. For example, he posted a scene shot in Tokyo with three lenses – a 14mm, a 35mm and a 50mm – to gauge which one his audience preferred.

Zaha Hadid, Seoul

For his post-production he uses Adobe Bridge and Photoshop. He explains, ‘I find Adobe Bridge isn’t so commonly used, however I use it to browse and review all of my files. Within the program, I have a bunch of presets in Camera Raw which I’ve created over the years. From there, I tweak them depending on the image. Bridge is linked to Photoshop, which I’ve used ever since I was a teenager so I find it easier to use than Lightroom.

With Bridge, I can quickly apply presets to multiple images at once from the same sequence. When editing, I try to think “Okay, how do I want this? What can I change?” Even things like cropping, I’ll think about “How can I frame this better?”. Once I lock the composition, I can play with colour adjustments to match the mood I’m going for.

Karaoke, Tokyo, shot with a Sigma 14mm lens

Insta inspiration

To help his image choices for the new book Liam again turned to Instagram. ‘One thing that helped was thinking about which images did people like the most, respond to and engage with? That really helps when it comes to being a modern photographer and being into the social media side, where I can go to get statistical research. I had clear ideas of which ones would go in the book.

But then it was, “Which ones deserve a spread? Which ones can be smaller? Is it an equal amount of each city?” But I thought, “I’m not making a tour guide.” I only wanted the shots that I felt something for and other people engaged with, then I tried to combine them all together.’

Midnight Drive, Seoul

Liam sums up After Dark as ‘Photographs of a city at night presented in a cinematic format, exploring the theme of urban loneliness.’ That format he refers to is the fact that the book is in landscape format and his images are framed to cinematic ratios – 2.39:1, 1.85:1, 16:9 and 4:3.

He explains, ‘Before the first pandemic I had been to the Vatican City, London, Osaka, Kyoto, Chongqing, Hong Kong – all these shots were done. Then the pandemic happened. To me it was kind of a normal thing but people were saying, “Wow, this is kind of weird,” whereas I always went out of my way to find that emptiness. So, throughout the book, is that theme of these big cities that are pretty much empty, but you have all the lights still on. It has that kind of vibe of “what’s the story there?” But it just springs from the streets.’

The Crossing, Tokyo

Liam’s top tips for nocturnal city photos that stand out

1. Check your focus

‘One of the hardest things is getting a shot that’s in focus at night. With my Sony A7R III I have the quick custom key with the digital zoom, so I’ll tap it and I can check if everything’s in focus. I can look at my ISO briefly, just to see if it’s good, and then I take the shot. I can alternate between manual focus and autofocus. That helped me a lot when it came to low light.’

2. Find an interesting backdrop

‘The thing I look for most is just the interesting backdrop when I think about architecture.’

Tokyo

3. Using existing lights

‘I think about lighting and try to find places that are already lit.’

4. Find moments

‘Try to find moments of isolation. Find people who are almost like ants in these big cities and try to frame that to show that contrast. When I’m shooting at 3am or 4am think about what these people are doing, people who are maybe finishing work, starting work.’

5. Have a clear theme

Have a clear idea and theme. For “urban loneliness” I want to show what these cities look like when everyone’s asleep and how are they similar? I have taxi driver shots in Seoul and ones in Tokyo. Think of a theme and think about how the images work together.’

Last Night in Soho, London

Essential advice for editing engaging night-time images

1. Always shoot raw

‘The first tip I always give is that I always shoot raw, so that gives me a bit more leeway when it comes to editing images. Because it’s low light I play with the colours a lot because I try to minimise the noise. Normally I just shift it up so that my mid-tones are brighter because in raw I can afford to shoot images darker and then brighten them up in post. I always underexpose by a stop. People underestimate how much you can bring out of a raw file.’

Midnight Drive, Tokyo

2. Think before you shoot

‘I always think about what’s in the image first before I edit it. I think about the subject in my frame and how I can move around and compose myself, and my shot, before I even think about colour – that helps a lot.’

3. Work with colours

‘With my TO:KY:OO shots I was going for this sort of super-stylised look, but After Dark is more inspired by someone like [film director] Michael Mann’s movies, stuff like Heat or Collateral. I’m just inspired by film stock where what I’m doing is looking at colour temperature and thinking, “Is it cooler or warmer?” I’m looking for complementary colours, but it’s more subdued than say TO:KY:OO. I got good at editing to a point where I can see a colour and know how I can correct and fine-tune those individual colours. It’s not very hard, but I think if you learn it then you get quite far.’

Shinjuku Glow, Tokyo

Liam’s Kit list

Cameras

‘I have the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV and the Sony A7R III and I kind of alternate between them. I like to have a dual yield so I can have one lens on one camera, kind of like a wedding photographer, before I have to switch. I actually use the 14mm mostly on my Sony because I got it with a mount that fits on and that one is extremely light.’

Canon 24-70mm f/4

‘In TO:KY:OO I hadn’t got many lenses – the main one was a Canon 24-70mm. After Dark is where I ended up using way more lenses. I’d never used an ultra-wide before and I’d never used a lot of prime lenses. When I tried all these different lenses, I started to kind of open up a little bit more creatively.’

Canon 35mm f/1.4

‘In this book my main lens is a 35mm f/1.4 Canon – I just love that lens. It was the first one I thought, “Well, it’s pricey but I’ll buy it.” I think it’s to do with the fact that the aspect is kind of similar to film and also its low-light capabilities.’

Salary Man, Tokyo

Sigma 14mm f/1.8

‘At that time I also tried a few wider ones like a 14mm Sigma, which I didn’t have before. It’s like this big globe of glass. It’s a heavy lens but is amazing. I have a bunch of photos that I took with that lens in After Dark and it was really just like opening up shots.’

Canon 50mm f/1.2

‘Another lens I love is the 50mm Canon f/1.2, so it’s actually quite an old lens. I got this second-hand one in Tokyo and I use that on both my Sony and my Canon cameras.’

How to crowdfund a photo book

‘When I wanted to make the first book [TO:KY:OO], the first thing I did was go into a bookstore and find all of the books that felt similar to what I wanted to make. I looked through them all and maybe bought some. For a photography book, crowdfunding is a great way to gauge the interest in your idea rather than wasting your time and money on something that might not be ready or might not be successful.’

‘Try to find your key images that people would engage with. Find a way to summarise your concept very clearly. Have mock-ups of pages that would lead people into thinking you have a photography series that has a kind of consistency or theme that is explored, even if it’s as simple as my theme, “Cities after midnight”. But have some kind of hook that makes people think, “That’s the type of thing I like… I’d like some more of that and I’d invest in that”.’

The book After Dark, by Liam Wong, is published by Volume (an imprint of Thames & Hudson), RRP £35.

Liam Wong

Liam Wong is a game designer, photographer, art director and filmmaker. His travels led him to enjoy taking photographs of cities around the world at night. He went freelance in March 2019 and has now built up an Instagram following of over 220,000 people. Liam was listed by Forbes magazine as one of the most influential 30 people under 30. His latest book is After Dark. See www.liamwong.com and Instagram: @liamwong

Remastered photos shed light on Apollo moon landing

Isabella Ruffatti — Fri, 23 Sep 2022 11:22:06 +0000

Working through 35,000 scans of Apollo moon landing mission imagery and ‘remastering’ the best is a massive job, but Andy Saunders did it magnificently, as Geoff Harris discovers.

When one considers the greatest achievement of the 20th century, the Apollo missions to the moon must be very strong contenders – unless you’re one of those unhinged conspiracy theorists who believes it was all faked, but AP readers are much saner than that.

If the Apollo programme from 1968 to 1972 wasn’t impressive enough, a vast body of still and video imagery was also taken by the astronauts up in space or on the lunar surface.

You’d think they would have enough to worry about, especially the crew of the troubled Apollo 13 mission, but some 35,000 images were taken on state-of-the-art cameras (for the time), and subsequently stored in a frozen NASA vault in Houston. For half a century, almost every publicly available image of the moon landings was produced from lower-quality copies of these originals.

Apollo 11, 21st July, 1969 Hasselblad 70mm, 80mm lens f/2.8 by Buzz Aldrin NASA ID: AS11-37-5528. Buzz Aldrin’s portrait of Neil Armstrong, moments after their historic moonwalk. Dry air, pressure changes, moon-dust irritation and sheer exhaustion are thought to have contributed to Armstrong’s red, teary eyes. © NASA / JSC / ASU / Andy Saunders

Now, however, expert image restorer Andy Saunders has painstakingly worked on digital scans of this massive archive, bringing the original images to life as never before. His new book, Apollo Remastered, includes much more detailed shots of Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong from the first moon landing, Apollo 11, Jim Lovell and the Apollo 13 crew struggling to get their stricken transit craft back in one piece, and much more.

We caught up with Andy to find out more about this labour of love.

The right stuff

Andy begins by stressing that this project was never driven or funded by NASA. ‘NASA has an open-source policy, so anyone can access the image scans. They are more than happy for people to work on them.

I sent back the remastered versions of the scans to NASA, but it wasn’t like I was contacted by them at the beginning. Nobody else was working up the images, including NASA. We had the holy grail of the super-high-resolution Apollo mission scans and they were just sitting there on a server!’

Andy began by working on some 16mm footage of Neil Armstrong in order to pull out individual stills, before deciding to check out the whole Apollo back-catalogue. ‘There were 35,000 images, so I went through them all and digitally remastered the best. Each scan is 1.3GB, so even downloading them was an effort. I just decided to go ahead and do it – somebody needed to take the bull by the horns.’

Apollo 16 mission commander John Young collecting moon dust. This remastered scan reveals a huge level of detail including the time on his watch! © NASA / JSC / ASU / Andy Saunders

An obvious question is why nobody had worked on the scans before in such a consistent and disciplined way. ‘If you think back over the last 50 years, for the first 25 we were still in an analogue world, without digital processing,’ muses Andy. ‘For the next 10-15, we moved into the digital imaging age, but the scanning technology wasn’t up the job.

‘Recently, however, there has been a step change in our ability to lift the data from this very delicate film, so NASA was keen to take the opportunity.’ Andy is affable and modest, with a dry sense of northern humour, but clearly had the ‘right stuff’ for this project, to name-check Tom Wolfe’s tribute to the first astronauts.

‘I could have gone into it half-heartedly, picking and choosing particular things to work on, but I really went for it. However time- consuming it was, I decided to try and get every ounce of goodness from the scans, or not bother at all.
‘I didn’t really know what to do with my enhanced images. I was sharing them on social media and when I started to see the great public response, I was motivated even more.

Apollo 11, July 20, 1969, 6 Frames Of 16mm Film, Stacked And Processed, NASA ID: APOLLO 11 MAG 1082-K. Armstrong progressed with collecting the contingency soil sample in case an emergency required an early abort. He’s preparing it in order to fit it into his thigh pocket. Regarded as the clearest image of Armstrong on the Moon, this shows for the first time, fine details and the recognizable features of the first man on the Moon. © NASA / Andy Saunders (Digital Source: Stephen Slater)

People particularly loved the Apollo 11 images of Neil Armstrong, and they started to get published in print and online. Then people started to suggest a book, and I could see the huge potential. Even when posting on social media, I was adding captions and context after going through the mission transcripts. By doing a book I could get everything in chronological order and add quotes from the astronauts too.’

Getting started

Andy’s interest in the moon landings goes back to childhood. ‘I loved rockets as a boy and the idea of taking one to the moon blew my mind. I wanted to learn more about the astronauts, who they were, what they did, what they wore… As I got older I appreciated more and more what an incredible achievement it was to get these rudimentary craft to the moon, in an age where computers were nowhere near as powerful as they are now.

I also loved the romance of the old film imagery – I’ve been into photography a long time, too, mainly working on event and architectural shoots but also following my passion for landscapes. I was somewhere between a serious amateur and a semi-professional photographer, so I did understand photo editing.

‘What really got me going was the movie footage of Neil Armstrong, where I started to develop my stacking process. I applied stacking to multiple frames of the 16mm footage of Armstrong, carefully reducing the noise, and was able to reveal lots of the detail in the subsequent still images.

Apollo 16, 23rd April, 1972EVA-3, Hasselblad 70mm. Lens 60mm F/5.6. By Charlie Duke, NASA ID: AS16-117-18826. Young, covered in Moon dust, is about to use the rake to collect a sample. From all the Apollo flight film, this photograph shows some of the finest suit detail. Young’s Speedmaster watch, set to Houston time, clearly shows 1:21 and 31 seconds, which ties well to the mission transcript time. The ALSEP can be seen behind. © NASA / JSC / ASU / Andy Saunders

It was reasonably straightforward to separate out the individual frames from the footage, shot on a Maurer 16mm Data Acquisition Camera (DAC). For the images of Armstrong, the camera was locked on a tripod, but most of the images I used in the book were from later mission footage shot handheld.’

Data monster

As Andy explains, ‘handheld’ in this context meant an astronomical challenge. ‘The handheld footage was taken by an astronaut, floating around in zero G forces, of another astronaut, also floating around. Trying to align and stack images taken in this “jerky” way on 16mm film was impossible, so I had to develop my own technique in order to obtain relatively high-quality still images.’

He is justifiably proud of the end result. ‘The images in Apollo Remastered take you inside the spacecraft and give a sense of intimacy that you didn’t get before. We are used to seeing stills of anonymous space suits with the gold visor down. I wanted the viewer to feel like they were there too, making these incredible journeys with these space explorers. You can see what the inside of a 1960s moon ship actually looks like.’

In terms of equipment, Andy was set up to do the basics, but had to upgrade some of his hardware, particularly memory. ‘I had hard drives everywhere and used lot of cloud storage as there was a huge amount of data.’ He didn’t need to go out and buy a new super-computer, however: ‘I used a quality monitor and a graphics tab but I didn’t need a super-fast computer processor – it was more about ensuring I had enough memory.’

Before and After, Apollo 9, March 7, 1969 Hasselblad 70mm. Lens 80mm F/2.8 | By Rusty Schweickart, NASA ID: AS09-24-3665. A studio-like portrait recovered from underexposed film reveals McDivitt undertaking the world’s first docking of two crewed spacecraft (with internal transfer). As McDivitt looked up, he had to translate the LM’s controls by 90 degrees in his head –Schweickart told me this was “an almost impossible task.” The reflection of the docking window, Earth and COAS (guidance) sight can be seen in his “bubble” helmet. This is the only photograph of an Apolloastronaut in their full suit and “bubble” helmet during flight. ©NASA / JSC / ASU / Andy Saunders

Andy used a Mac for converting the movie footage into individual frames, but did all the editing on a PC. ‘I eat up 10TB of hard drive storage and a similar amount in the cloud. In hindsight I would have liked more RAM, it would have made the process faster.’

Stacks of time

Software-wise, Andy didn’t have to develop any programs himself and mainly used Lightroom and Photoshop.

‘I avoided any AI-based software or processes, however, as I didn’t want a computer program to invent pixels for me. I wanted an absolutely accurate record. For the stacking, you can even use free software, but I had to stack each frame manually in Photoshop, which was very time-consuming and certainly not for the faint-hearted. It could take a couple of days to do the stacking for just one image, particularly those which were underexposed – and a lot of them were.’

For the 16mm movie footage, Andy’s stacking technique (often used in astrophotography), involved separating individual frames and aligning and stacking them in order to reduce noise. He had to develop his own technique to deal with all the camera movement in the frames, the details of which he’s keeping close to his chest for the time being.

In addition, Andy worked on the scans of still images taken by the astronauts on a range of Hasselblad cameras. A digital scan of a 70mm Hasselblad frame delivered a 1.3GB, 16-bit TIFF file, which is 11,000 pixels square. This sounds a lot, but Andy was still dealing with a digital scan of old analogue film.

Again, Andy won’t go into masses of detail, but the editing process involved carefully bringing up areas of low contrast and a lot of noise reduction. He also removed artefacts that slipped through the film cleaning process before it was scanned by NASA.

The Cameras Taken There

Hasselblad camera.

As Andy explains, despite the Apollo missions being a patriotic, all-American effort to beat the Soviet Union to the moon, they didn’t only use American photographic equipment. ‘NASA mainly used Swedish Hasselblad cameras with East German Carl Zeiss lenses, while Kodak provided the film. They went with the best equipment they could find.

One of the early Project Mercury astronauts, Wally Schirra, knew a lot of the top news photographers at the time and championed the use of Hasselblad medium format gear. Schirra dropped into a photographic store in Houston and bought a Hasselblad 500C off the shelf, which he delivered to NASA for a few modifications. Further experimentation ensued and by the time of Apollo 11, Armstrong and his crew were using multiple adapted Hasselblad 500 ELs.

For much more detail on the mission cameras, see our article here.

Apollo 9, 6th March, 1969, Hasselblad SWC 70mm lens 38mm f/4.5 by Rusty Schweickart, NASA ID: AS09-20-3064 Scott: ‘We’re all taking pictures of everybody taking pictures.’ This image shows much of the CSM/LM stack: Scott is in the Command Module hatch taking a picture with his Hasselblad 500C (note, front mounted shutter release and manual film advance winder) of Schweickart. Scott: ‘Hey, Rusty. Why don’t you lean over here again; I’d sure like to get a picture of that whole scene. © NASA / JSC / ASU / Andy Saunders

Andy’s workflow

‘Further culling of all the scans gave me a shortlist of images that revealed something new, of historical significance, and helped tell the story. These I processed to the nth degree. With the image of Jim McDivitt used on the book cover, for instance, I could see that the little window was underexposed and I thought I might be able to reveal another astronaut.’

It never worried Andy as he posted his enhanced images online that a big software company would muscle in, or that other image restorers would try to steal his glory. ‘I just wanted people to see what I was doing. As each Apollo mission marked its 50th anniversary, I was keen to get the pictures in the news again, and to get people talking about them.’

NASA and photography

Apollo 9, 6th March, 1969, Hasselblad 70mm. Lens 80mm F/2.8. By Dave Scott. McDivitt: ‘Oh, I’ve got to have that camera and get you! . . . In your visor, our spacecraft Gumdrop completely all the way down to the bottom of the service module and the whole Earth behind you!’ Scott: ‘Oh, hey! I got one of those too now that you mention it. Just don’t move, Russell.’ Scott’s view back at Schweickart using his Hasselblad SWC (note, top-mounted shutter release and manual film advance winder) and the LM, CSM, Scott and the whole Earth reflected in his visor. © NASA / JSC / ASU / Andy Saunders

As Andy explains, at the start of the moon mission planning in 1961, NASA didn’t have much appetite for photography – it was one man going up in a tiny capsule with no time to worry about cameras.

‘But John Glenn, who was the first American to orbit Earth in 1962, took it upon himself to buy a Ansco Autoset camera from a drug store in Florida, get it adapted and take photos on his mission. He also had a Leica supplied by NASA. It wasn’t until Gemini 4, the second crewed spaceflight in 1964, that we got photos of an astronaut (Ed White) against the backdrop of Earth, however.

This image turned out to be a real game-changer. The huge public response convinced NASA that they could use photography to get the public on board and get continued government support. By the time of Neil Armstrong’s moon landing there had been a lot of camera development and training given to the astronauts.

Some of them later told me that they were thoroughly sick of taking photos by the time they went up in space – NASA had them practising all the time, including on their vacations. So, most of the material they came back with was usable, though on the Apollo 8 mission to the far side of the moon, Bill Anders put on the wrong film magazine in error – it was very fast film designed for shooting star fields etc. He realised his mistake, told mission control, and they were able to process the film in a different way and still get something usable.’

Houston, we’ve had a problem

Before and after, Apollo 13, 15^th-16th April, 1970, 1,000 Image Samples From Multiple Frames Of 16mm Film, Stacked, Processed And Stitched, NASA ID: APOLLO 13 MAG 1208. Lovell: ‘You know, we’ve gone a hell of a long time without any sleep.’ Commander Lovell (hand, left) keeps watch over his ship and crew as they try to rest in the cold, dark LM. Haise has his arm tucked away while Swigert is curled up on the ascent engine cover in the storage area; the tunnel to the CM is above him. ©NASA / Andy Saunders (Digital Source: Stephen Slater)

As well as the iconic images of the first moon landing, the remarkably candid shots of the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission are another big highlight of the book. ‘I was fascinated by Apollo 13, having seen the Tom Hanks movie, and I am still amazed how calm Jim Lovell and the rest of the crew look. On some images they even look jovial.

Although the images in the book were taken after the explosion, the crew had no idea whether they would make it back home alive. Despite the danger of the moment, they took lots of images; at one point Jim Lovell ordered them to put the cameras away and focus on getting the famous ‘manual burn’ right. These were hard-nosed ex-test pilots, remember, so they’d learn to subdue emotion as it just got in the way.’

Andy finds it hard to name a favourite image, but is particularly fond of that used on the book cover, showing Jim McDivitt. ‘It has a bit of everything but essentially it shows a man doing his job in very hazardous conditions. He appears to be looking up in wonder, but is just focusing on what he needs to do.’

Apollo 14 February 6, 1971, Hasselblad 70mm lens f/5.6 by Edgar Mitchell NASA ID: AS14-66-9336 TO 9343. Back in the LM, the crew photographed the landing site just before leaving the Moon. This stitched panorama shows the scene asit would be found to this day. Mitchell’s discarded PLSS is lower left. Shepard hurled his own significantly further. The ALSEP is upper left, Turtle Rock upper center and the TV camera far right. Both golf balls are also visible (in the crater, above center, and upper left on the “lunar fairway”). (Panorama, fiducial mark removal, EL: 4/5) © NASA / JSC / ASU / Andy Saunders

The next mission

As you can imagine, Apollo Remastered soon turned into a full-time job and certainly not something you could do after a hard day at the office. Andy was in a position where he was able to put his career and business interests to one side and focus full time on this epic editing project.

‘Actually, it was beyond full time, it was a 16- to 17-hour day at one point. I’ve now become a full-time author and image restorer and want to do more remastering of images from Gemini and Mercury, the pre-Apollo missions. The astronauts on Gemini used a Hasselblad super wide camera and the results were amazing – they were predominantly of Earth, and frequently referenced by big Hollywood movies. This should keep me busy for a while!’

For Andy, the take-away message of this amazing labour of love is that we should never give up on old film images and footage, however hard enhancing them appears to be.

‘As a kid, I remember the devastation you felt when a film developer told you the film was spoilt or unusable. With today’s digital processing it is not necessarily lost for ever, however, and you can do some amazing things – so don’t throw old pictures and home movies away.’

Andy ends with a wry riposte to moon-landing deniers who say the photos and footage are faked. ‘When you see all those 35,000 scans from NASA, you realise that it would have been easier to go to the moon than to fake them all!’

Brought to book

Apollo Remastered by Andy Saunders, Credit: Penguin Random House UK.

Apollo Remastered features over 400 full-page photographs taken during the Apollo missions to the moon. Every image has been digitally remastered from the original flight film, or HD transfers of the 16mm ‘movie’ film. The book covers every Apollo mission, as well as some of the preceding Mercury and Gemini missions that helped pave the way. ‘It’s the next best thing to being there,’ said Apollo 16 astronaut, Charlie Duke. Apollo Remastered is published by Penguin Books, ISBN: 9780241508695, and is available now for £60.

Andy Saunders

Andy Saunders is one of the world’s foremost experts on NASA digital restoration as well as being a keen photographer in his own right. His work has been exhibited at museums, and appeared in BBC News, The Daily Telegraph, Smithsonian’s Air & Space Magazine, Ars Technica, and The Washington Post, as well as in NASA’s own archives. See www.apolloremastered.com

Twitter: @AndySaunders_1

Instagram: @andysaunders_1

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Photography books Archives - Amateur Photographer

The best landscape photography books for inspiration

Best landscape photography books

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