Scottish and Arctic Landscape Photographs

Landscape photography, especially in wilderness regions, demands a high level of dedication, even before a single image is captured. Most of my locations have taken hours, days, even weeks to reach. Planning trips to the arctic is a long-term commitment. Few have seen the faraway sites I have been privileged to visit in north-east Greenland, whereas the iconic landscapes of the north-west Highlands will be familiar to many hill-walkers - so my photographs could, I imagine, both open new windows and strike chords of recognition.



Typically, it is the recognition of a distinctive 'spirit of place' that has prompted a photograph. This is likely to have been the product of a particular state of the light, or perhaps a geophysical phenomenon, or some moment of pure visual delight encountered during a walk, rather than the kind of historical association with which a 'genius loci' is traditionally linked. In any case, nowhere ever looks (or feels) exactly the same on different occasions and, by its very nature, every photograph is a unique record of time and place. I want to share something of the impact these very special places have had on me. Even so, an expressive photograph must have a resonance beyond the circumstances of its origination. That is why, in my view, an appreciation of formal values is vital. My images tend to have a strong linear structure and a sensitivity to tone akin to a drawing. (Sometimes my photographs have actually been mistaken for drawings.)

Although my sense of composition is much influenced by my background in the fine arts, I never digitally alter or enhance what I photograph in any way beyond what is the normal practice for transferring images from camera to print. As an exhibition curator once wrote, I retain 'a conscious faith in the power and poetry of the photographic document, persuasive in its accumulation of detail and as evidence of slowly evolving historical processes'.