Dark Matters » photographer

Trent Parke

Roger Coulam — Sat, 02 Jan 2016 14:32:12 +0000

Happy New Year.

What better way to start 2016 than with these two shorts clips about Trent Parke

I could spend many happy hours with his artist’s books.

Alex Majoli

Roger Coulam — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 06:00:48 +0000

The powerful images of Alex Majoli

William Klein

Roger Coulam — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 06:00:30 +0000

This is William Klein’s “Contacts Vol. 1, Portraits of Contemporary Photographers”.

It is rare to hear a great photographer, talking about their contact sheets and work in such an illuminating manner. For more information on Klein visit http://www.masters-of-photography.com/K/klein/klein.html

Here are two thought provoking qoutes from the man….

“Be yourself. I much prefer seeing something, even it is clumsy, that doesn’t look like somebody else’s work.” William Klein

“I used the wide-angle lens as a normal lens. I had no philosophy about it. When I looked in the viewfinder and realized I could see all the contradictions and confusion that was there with the wide-angle — that was what was great… I’d had a Rolleiflex with different lenses, I wouldn’t have cropped that much. I had no compunction about cropping, because I did my own layouts…[And] I’d use anything in printing. Throw cyanide, white out over things. I approached photography a little bit like a painter would play with a lithograph, fooling around, pouring milk, tea, anything on it. It was the sort of thing that anybody with any sort of strict, classic photographic training would have qualms about. But I had no qualms at all about doing things with photography. First of all, I had no knowledge of it, and I couldn’t care less, because I thought the whole photographic world was alien.” William Klein (via Lens Culture)

Back To the Wall

Roger Coulam — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 12:21:11 +0000

I have worked intermittently with Practical Photography Magazine since 2001, and recently completed a job with them as part of their “24 Hours With..” feature. The brief was that they follow me during a landscape shoot on Hadrian’s Wall, an area I have visited frequently over the years. But with Ben Hawkins, the Deputy Editor from PP, looking over my shoulder and noting down my every move, the elements conspired against me, and it turned out to be one of the toughest assignments I have ever done, and definitely the wettest.

Any type of “landscape” work in the summer can be challenging as the quality of light is often poor, and depending on the weather, the “golden hour” can be reduced to the “golden five minutes if you’re lucky”.

This summer I have been revisiting Hadrian’s Wall http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadrian%27s_Wall to try and make something different for stock libraries. Most of my pictures of the iconic Wall have been made in the winter months, when the sun is lower and more predictable.

For a few months in the summer the sun sets north-west of the wall, making for a much more challenging set of conditions and vistas, often dissected with harsh shadow. To complicate matters the north facing side of wall is not accessible in many places, so coming away with useful pictures is much harder than in the winter, when so much is laid out on a plate for the photographer.

An important part of outdoor photography is careful planning, researching the location, understanding the position and movement of the sun, and watching the weather forecast. Sadly the date for this shoot had to be fixed well in advance, and if the choice had been my own I would have not left the house that day.

The forecast was terrible and the rain fell in torrents for seven frustrating hours, only briefly interspersed with flat grey skies and a chill wind…..ah the joys of early summer on Hadrian’s Wall. We must have looked quite a sight, just standing in the middle of nowhere in the driving rain, water logged and dripping. But at least the midgies were drowning!

I had hoped for a shooting window of around two hours to make 20 or so pictures for the magazine piece, covering various locations over a one mile stretch of the Wall; instead I had around ten minutes total working time, with sodden kit and a nice fine drizzle. Outdoor work should be considered and calm, and not carried out at running pace with a journalist trailing behind with his umbrella! It could be argued that all shoots will not go to plan, and this IS the reality of outdoor photography, but ultimately I had quality pictures to produce for a client whatever the weather, and they had to be done that day.

With hindsight at least I got to know the location better, and made some (moist) notes for future visits, and I also know that my coat pockets will fill with water after a while standing in heavy rain. More seriously I received a reminder that for some commercial jobs the pictures have to be a compromise. When time is a constraint, every picture that comes out the camera may not be amazing, but has to be the very best that can be made at that time, taking into account all of the circumstances.

Only rarely on commercial jobs will the expectations that you have in your mind be exceeded, and you must be prepared for even the best laid plans to fall apart. That is part of the challenge and the constant learning curve, and you learn more from adversity and from having to draw on all your skills to complete the job.

Balancing commercial work with personal projects is never easy, and the two strands are often difficult for a photographer to reconcile, but the bills have to be paid.

“Shooting Hadrian’s Wall” features in Augusts’ edition of Practical Photography Magazine. http://www.photoanswers.co.uk/

For my February 2011 guest editorial in PP (relating to HDR and photoshopping) please visit http://www.rogercoulam.com/blog/2011/01/hdr-photoshopping/

Thomas Joshua Cooper

Roger Coulam — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 06:00:25 +0000

I recently attended an inspiring talk by the unique artist Thomas Joshua Cooper, who is regarded as one of the world’s most important landscape artists. The event was organised by the North East Photography Network http://www.northeastphoto.net/

Thomas only makes images outdoors, only ever makes one image in any one place, and uses an Agfa camera that was made in 1898. He is well known for the extraordinary lengths he goes to in order to make his images, and can spend months travelling to the remote parts of the globe to make a single image.

Cooper has always emphasized that his images are made not taken or shot and the final stage in the process takes place in the dark room.

“When I make a picture it is a considered event and a considered action, and through that consideration the act of construction occurs. So for me, I never take anything because it seems first to be overly aggressive and possessive, I make something, I originate it.” (Thomas Joshua Cooper)

“I see my photographs as meditations, it is as simple as that. To be understood they must be experienced––felt, seen, known. Consequently, I often use the medium of the landscape, for everyone, in some small way, has some very personal relation to the land––thus they are ready (and willing) to come in to look, if not into, at least at the landscapes I produce. I have trapped them then! For if l have made the concept of the photographs strong enough, the viewer will begin to still himself for, indeed, I make Still photographs––and with the coming stillness comes the possibility of a deep meditational understanding and seeing. And seeing leads to Vision. And my photographs are there mainly as pointers, indications, of a vision of possibilities where stillness and silence abound––and where Light is understood to be a substantial reality. My photographs are my greatest teachers. It is my hope that they offer a moment of pleasure to my viewers––and perhaps a tiny hit of (mutual?) understanding … but, as always, I have no expectations”. - Thomas Joshua Cooper, Creative Camera, August, 1974, page 258

I would recommend anyone checks out Thomas’ pictures and words, as they can help to illuminate the thought process behind making pictures.