If you are in or near Edinburgh this Saturday 3rd December, Neil from Beyond Words book shop will have a stall at 'Out of the Blue Drill Hall' - http://2outoftheblue.org.uk/page10.htm. He will have many gorgeous photography books with him, including (of course), copies of my own book. I'm off to Lofoten, Norway this Thursday (I have got the right day, haven't I?), for some work on future portfolio images and to catch up with some friends.
Thank You!
I'm just home from my book signing, where I was surrounded by lots of friends, who came for support, and my mum came through too. It felt like a nice friend/family affair, and my talk went really well. I was asked my young Lucas (age 9, I think), if I intend to fall off a waterfall or crack into the ice on one of my ventures. I told him - yes, I expect it will happen some day (probably soon!). I'd just like to say how nice it was, tonight, to be surrounded by people who know me, and were there to support me. Thanks also, to those of you who have bought my book. It's been quite a journey, and I didn't plan any of it (being pro, doing a book, even making images).
I'm off to Norway this Thursday to shoot some of my own images for a week or so, and meet up with my Lofoten friends. I missed a flight during the summer and my friend Lilian sent me this email tonight to remind me to turn up at the airport this time on the right day:
Hi Bruce,
Just a short note to remind you to grab your bags and run to the airport on THURSDAY, THE 1st OF DECEMBER. This will eventually take you away, northeast from Scotland and to the country of the vikings or 'norse men'. Keep following your flightplan and you will eventually (2nd of December) end up on a big rock out in the ocean where it smells of fish all year round, where there is plenty of crazy weather and where a bunch of really nice people are waiting for you.
Says it all. I'm really looking forward to it, and I'll be there for a little while before Christmas.
I'd like to wish you all good plans for Christmas, and the coming festive season.
Once again, thanks so much for the kind words, encouragement, and the beautiful sentiments I've received over the past year.
Book Launch & Signing
Just a wee reminder about my book signing and launch in a week's time - 28th of November at the McDonald Road Library (just off Leith Walk), Edinburgh. 6:30pm to 8pm. There will be a talk by myself from 7pm to 7:30pm, and of course, a chance to talk to me and even buy a copy of the book and get it signed too!
Outdoor Photography Review
Steve Watkins, the Editor of the british magazine, Outdoor Photography, kindly emailed me a copy of the magazine review for my book. I've included it below - click on the image to see the full page.
But I also include an image grab of the actual review, which I have to say, it perhaps the nicest review I've ever read about what I do. I think that Steve has 'got me' in one. Yes, I'm a Steve McCurry fan, and I've often felt that this shows in my portraiture images, and I'm also a big Michael Kenna fan (like, who didn't know this already?), so his point about my images being influenced by MK, makes perfect sense. We all have our heros, but hopefully, we don't plagiarise, but instead, we work based on inspiration. That's at least, what I try to do with my own work. Just follow your heart, and things will be fine : )
If you didn't already know, the book is available at the Half-Light press web site.
If you don't already know about Outdoor Photography Magazine, then you can follow it on facebook.
Me, on a beach
A few days ago, Dumitru, one of my participants for my workshop on the Isle of Harris, sent me this photo.
I've found the last three or four months to be quite hard going. Running workshops is a great way of marking my time, and I really enjoy them. But they're also extremely demanding and I do get quite tired from time to time.
So here I was, on a beach in south Harris, in weather that was perhaps better than the weather we'd had in Summer, enjoying some time on my own. Dumitru said that I looked like I was meditating. I guess I was. Having some free time, on my own, to think my own thoughts, is a real luxury when I'm running a workshop.
Before I finish off this post, each year I notice how my Harris trip in November is always either a late seller, or does not reach the number of participants I'd like on it. Ok, I understand that folks are thinking about Christmas when November comes, and that their holiday time is set out for the summer months, but there's a reason why I do my workshops in the autumn and winter months: the light. It is by far the best time to come to Scotland. September to early May are good times, and when we get into the real winter months, we're talking about low suns, shorter days, more moody light etc, etc. I guess I wish I could convince folks to come to Harris then, but it seems that it's not the case.
It's the gain of the one's who decide to come, and the loss of those who don't. But I will continue to come back to Harris during the winter months, because it has a very special place in my photographers-heart.
The validity of reviewing art
Last night, on my way home from my Harris workshop, I had to drive through Skye and then through Glencoe. In an attempt to reduce the strain of the journey in my car, I listened to an hours debate about cinema, music and arts on BBC Radio 2. I found the review in many ways rather interesting, and in other ways, I couldn't wait to find the reviewers and hit them over their heads for being.... reviewers.
The reason for this was the review of Kate Bush's new album 50 words for snow, due for release on Monday, but for some reason, Amazon have delivered to my home this Friday. Last night, after the rather cack review of 50 words for snow, where the reviewers found the album dull and not as precent as some of Kate's earlier work, I found myself listening to her new album and from the first song, being entirely drawn in, to a world of snow, snowflakes, and a landscape in my mind filled with deep tones of piano and mature vocals ushered by Kate. Yep, you can tell I love Kate's new album.
I bring this up as a topic for discussion, because I find most of Kate Bush's work takes a lot of time to appreciate. I find that her albums, particularly Ariel and the new one, seem to get better with every listen, and certainly, they become part of my life over several years, and seem to accompany me on many of my photographic journeys.
I don't normally listen to reviews, or critics on TV or Radio. Often they lack objectivity. They should consider where the artist has been, where they're going, and inform the public of how they feel their new work relates to what they've done in the past. Anything else is of little consequence, because art in general, needs time to be appreciated, understood, and find its place in our culture.
Surely this is the same as any art?
In the case of making photographs, some of my own have had to 'earn' their place in my own heart. Some were considered throw away efforts at the time, only to become ones that I now feel were pivotal in the direction I took in what I was doing, or maybe I feel they showed me a new door in my efforts. Some are appreciated over time, more for what they became through familiarity, rather than what I thought they should be (and failed to be) at the time of exposure.
Surely, if we are to be objective about what we do, we must give our art space to be what it is. Let it live, even as a failure? There have been plenty of pieces of art created that were considered uninteresting, average, or plain failures at the time they were created, but have, over time, become classics. Maybe this is more to do with era, and the change in tastes that happen over time. Some things fit 'now' and are instant hits, and will, as time progresses, become very dated, other art objects gain a slow appreciation, and others are discovered much later when the time is right for them to be appreciated.
If it were me, I wouldn't have been so hasty with the review of Kate's new album. I would give it a chance to show us just what it truly is.
Maybe we should all do that with our photographic efforts too?
Book Feedback
For those of you who kindly bought my hardback book, it seems that many of them are dropping through the letter boxes of people in the UK this morning, and I've received some really nice correspondence so far.
I thought I'd leave the rest of this post as it is. Maybe if you enjoy the book, you'll leave a comment here - it would be lovely to hear your impressions of the book!
I'm on the isle of Harris this week, doing a workshop, so I'll catch up with you all at the end of the week.
Enjoy the book, and I hope you get your copy this week!
The art of making nothing at all
Today's posting is a philisophical one. In it, I try to consider how as photographers, the act of making images, actually gets in the way of us being able to truly appreciate / relax / see what is really in front of us. Maybe what I'm saying, is the act of photography can end up with someone chasing so many images, that they are not able to see them anymore. Like a HiFi fanatic, who spends all his money on better audio cable, and finds he is no longer enjoying the music, but is too wrapped up in trying to make the quality perfect, so too, can chasing photographs mean, that we are no longer enjoying the scene, and because we are no longer enjoying it, we aren't able to connect and respond to anything beautiful that is presented to us.
So in this posting, I suggest that sometimes, leaving the camera behind, and just letting yourself watch and study, absorb and enjoy the landscape, can be a great way of recharging your own photographic ability.
Lastly, I'm a great believer in things happening when they choose to, and not when I want them to. There will always be another day for photography, and there will always be 'just one more shot' that you want to make. The photographer who is never satisfied, never able to 'get everything', is chasing a dream.
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A few weeks ago, I released a new eBook about self-awareness. In it, I covered the biggest stumbling block in making good images - ourselves and our 'issues'.
I've been thinking tonight, that I'm finding that after 10 years of intensive image making, I'm starting to just enjoy not using a camera, not going out specifically to make images. I'm wondering if it's true, that as photographers, we start off with a desire to photograph everything. Most of us have very limited free time, so when we do have that free time, we use it to do as much photography as we can. I can certainly testify that some of my portfolios were made in very intensive 3-week vacation blasts (Iceland in 2004 for instance).
But I've become more patient as a photographer. I like to just wait until things happen and I'm faced with something that I find inspiring. I also love to take the pressure of, by simply leaving the camera behind, and just wonder around a location and enjoy it for what it is.
There's something very enjoyable about looking at sand, and how the sand interacts with the sea, with a photographer's eye, but with no picture in mind, and no camera at hand. Where once I would be frustrated and wish to have my camera with me to photograph these moments, I now relish just enjoying them as they happen. I think this is because I know that amazing moments happen all the time. I often read articles where photographers explain how something suddenly amazing happened. Well, these things happen all the time. So it's very nice to just walk around and enjoy them.
I'm wondering if this intensity to make images is slowly ground down to a more relaxed attitude towards making new work. I feel no massive pressure to make new work, because I believe it happens when I least expect it to, and not when I command it. I also wonder that the things I loved about scenery to start with, before I owned a camera, are now overcoming the almost blinding desire to make images more than enjoy the scenery for what it is.
Maybe the ultimate act in photography, is to not photograph anything at all, but just recognise a moment, let it imprint itself onto your soul, for the briefest of moments, and enjoy it for what it is: a moment in life where we were conscious of what we saw and felt.
Holiday's are a coming
In a few weeks time, I'll be back in Reine, Lofoten for around 11 days. The trip is really to catch up with friends and also, to spend some time photographing Lofoten in the winter months before the snow comes next year.
I was chatting to my friend Vlad today and he emailed me this photo of Reine, Lofoten from a trip he did there recently. It was really nice to hear from him, and also to see a recent photograph of Reine. I feel as if it is a home from home.
As we were chatting, I remembered that Vlad also sent me this photograph of the Aurora, witnessed from our friends house in Reine. It happened just a few nights after I'd left to come home. Vlad was still there, and I couldn't believe he'd seen the Aurora happen from the balcony of the house I'd just left.
Of course, there is no guarantee about seeing the Aurora, and any photographic workshop that promises it, is to be avoided. It is a rare thing, and you really need a lot of time, and luck, to see it.
If you would like to see some more of Vlad's work (he's a really lovely chap too - he has a bit of a deep soul to him), then please view his gallery. Vlad also has a facebook page, which you should check out too.
Many thanks to Vladimir Donkov for letting me use his photographs, while I have no new ones to present.
The book is here
Well, I had to put a nice little intro together, but the title of this post says it all. The book arrived today and the morning started with a wee celebration in the form of some Swiss chocolate sent to me from a deal Swiss friend, to celebrate the release of my book. The chocolate boxes had pictures of the book and 'art of adventure' stamped all over them, so it made me laugh quite a bit.
I've got a bit of bubbly to take into my office today too.
I'll be spending today packing the advanced orders and inundating the post-office with them. They did say that if I left them with them, they would process them in their own good time, but I'm wondering how long it will take them?
There will be a book launch and signing this 28th of November at the McDonald Road library along with a 30 minute talk by myself about the making of some of the images contained within the book.
If you're intending on coming along to the book launch to buy a book, please do drop us a line and we can reserve a copy of the book for you.
If you can't make it to the launch, but would like a copy of the book, please go to the Half-Light Press website for more information.