Tag Archive for 'trees'
Hats off to British photographer Paul Wakefield who achieved the near impossible task of making me take notice of a print advert for a car. I hasten to add, before I get shot down in flames by car photographers, my usual indifference is due to the subject matter, certainly not a comment on a lack of creativity and craftmanship in this genre.
With a considerable reputation as a skilled landscape photographer, Paul is now often sought by the big advertising commissioners to give their campaigns some elegance and allure.
I am intrigued. Was it just a beautiful coincidence that nature turned up its “wonder-ometer” to 11 on the day of the shoot? Or did the entire team just mobilise with supreme speed and devise this image by a meeting of creative minds? Either way, it is one heck of a beautiful image.
- Client : Peugeot
- Photographer : Paul Wakefield
- Agency : BETC/EURO/RSCG, Paris
- Retouching : Saddington & Baynes.
The International Garden Photographer of the Year Competition is one of the most prestigious photography contests and the Overall Winner this year features the above stunning scene from a Japanese Garden. Australian photographer, Claire Takacs, managed to be in the right place at a wonderful time AND possessed the skills to create a beautiful evocative image. What is it about trees and snow which combines so perfectly.
Talking of trees, allow me to point you in the direction of Paul Debois. He has a series of black and white images taken with a pinhole camera in the Portolio Section of the IGPOY competition (click here to view) which I just adore. Yes, the winning set of shots is beautiful but (in my humble opinion) Debois’ work is more deserving for top spot as it is individual, highly creative and skilful and possesses the ability to move you into another zone. I have always liked Edward Steichen’s work and it was no surprise to read that Paul Debois’ “Pinhole Impressions” has a dab of Steichen inspiration behind it.
I have a long-standing project I began years ago, a mission to photograph my favourite trees. Sadly, I am nowhere near finished, in fact by it’s very nature I probably never will reach completion. One thing it does do though, is really get me thinking. How can I make my work original and capture the subject with beauty and simplicity? One series of shots from photographer Abbas Kiarostami is etched in my mind as a kind of benchmark.
The work featured here is from the series “Trees in Snow”. Kiarostami is an Iranian photographer. He is super-talented and may be better known to many of you as an award-winning film-maker; “The Wind Will Carry Us” (1999), “A Taste of Cherry” (1997) and “Ten” (2002) are three from his impressive archive. He wrote some words to introduce this series at the V&A, London in 2005.
“Snow descends from
the black clouds
with the whiteness of snow”
The “Trees in Snow” images were borne out of Kiarostami’s long, solitary walks to search for film sets, sometimes covering thousands of miles in the Iranian landscape. Photographing these landscapes allowed him a spontaneous immersion in nature. When travelling alone, he sees his camera as a way of sharing moments which would be torturous if not preserved. The scenes became the equivalent of emotional states and the trees almost human, echoing the saying of the Islamic mystic Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi (born 1165 died 1240): ‘the tree is the sister of man’.
scatterdrum is a personal blog by Gill Moore. Gill is a professional photographer based in Manchester in England.
She works for commercial and editorial clients together with shooting personal projects. This side of her work often includes exhibiting, publishing and working with like-minded collaborators on an environmental theme.
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