Category: thinking about photography (Page 2 of 3)

In praise of Thomas Joshua Cooper

5 September, 2019 / Sidewayseye / 0 Comments

No other photographer comes closer to what I aspire than Thomas Joshua Cooper. It’s not the pictures per se, or his photographic expeditions or his success that motivates me. It’s something more intangible. The closest I can come to describing the feeling of his work is ‘spirit of place’, although this phrase doesn’t quite encapsulate everything that I feel in his pictures.

Zen and Photography

27 August, 2019 / Sidewayseye / 1 Comment

When I see the two words ‘Zen’ and ‘Photography’ together my in-built bullshit alarm starts to ring. An on-line search of the words ‘Zen’ + ‘Photography’ will retrieve ethereal long exposure landscapes and seascapes or articles about the need for an empty mind when pressing the camera’s shutter. And and so on. Empty indeed!

Manual Alvarez Bravo

23 July, 2019 / Sidewayseye / 0 Comments

The Photographer’s Gallery‘s exhibition of Manuel Alvarez Bravo has me reaching for my copy of ‘Manuel Alvarez Bravo – Photopoetry’, a detailed study into his photography. I have long been an admirer of his work, but what really strikes me about Alvarez Bravo (“AB”) is his ability to keep all the genre plates spinning.

Etching, Bromoil and Paper Negatives

19 July, 2019 / Sidewayseye / 0 Comments

At a recent exhibition of Rembrandt’s printmaking techniques I was struck by the similarities between Etching, Bromoil and Paper Negative printing. All show the hand of the artist. All share a certain sensibility.

Statues

10 July, 2019 / Sidewayseye / 0 Comments

I have a thing about taking photographs of statues, particularly in natural settings or cemeteries. It is hard to put into words but for me statues can evoke a sense of time stood still. It’s that influence from Atget.

The man who lived in his eyes

2 July, 2019 / Sidewayseye / 0 Comments

There is something to learn from Edwin Smith’s attitude to photography. His partner Olive Cook, said “Edwin never tried to impose his will on a theme: it was again a question of ‘co-operating with the inevitable'”.

On copying other photographers

6 June, 2019 / Sidewayseye / 0 Comments

Every student of photography will have their own list of favourite photographers. Perhaps we live in the hope that a well crafted list will somehow reflect well on our own ‘maturity’ as a photographer. Bathing in the light of a famous photographer, citing a photographer as an ‘early influence’, having a selfie with a well-known photographer – Ha! I guess we have all done it. At the very least, I plead guilty …

Wright Marion Morris – Déjà Vu

29 May, 2019 / Sidewayseye / 0 Comments

Wright Marion Morris is better known as an American Gothic writer than a photographer….

Photographers to research

27 May, 2019 / Sidewayseye / 0 Comments

I look at lots of photographs. I really look at them…

What phase am I in?

26 May, 2019 / Sidewayseye / 1 Comment

This last couple of years has seen me re-evaluating everything that I do as a photographer. It has both good and destructive moments, such is the nature of introspection. But you don’t get far in life in any manner that really counts without the capacity for self-doubt.