Whilst technical resources are (of course) useful for certain things, I learn far more from other photographers’ photographs than from seeing lists of their equipment, which tend to be really rather boring. Trying to discern how other people see is far more useful: I don’t want to copy others, but as Susan Sontag pointed out, there is an element of acquisition of other people’s work involved in creating images, whether we intend it or not (we may not even be aware of it, but it is still happening).
In that sense, then, these are some of the photographers and graphic resources that I regularly turn to for inspiration. This is by no means a complete list: I find I’m adding to this all the time. Note that links to books go to Beyond Words (see below) where possible, otherwise to Amazon. Twitter addresses are given for people that I ‘follow’. I have grouped these people into broad categories, but most photographers photograph more than one subject; in that sense, my categories are to be understood as what I see them as primarily engaging in.
And please: if you find a broken link, please tell me about it – thank you!).
Landscape
The desire to photograph the world around us is something I experience and am challenged by all the time, and the photographers I have listed here all approach this challenge in different ways that I find stimulating and engaging.
- Ansel Adams
- I love the vision, definition and precision in his work… and his books are just great too; I particularly find Examples: The Making of 40 Photographs really stimulating, alongside his three books on making images: The Camera, The Negative, The Print.
- Nick Atkin
- stimulating landscape images – I particularly like his images involving water. Interestingly (for me), he mostly sticks with 3×2 format, which I find myself moving away from more and more, but Nick usually makes it work. Twitter: @na_79.
- Mark Banks
- Mark is a large format photographer; I often feel he has really had to struggle to produce some of the images he shows, but they all have a depth and profundity to them that is really engaging. Twitter: @ThePackhorse.
- Alex Boyd
- a Scottish/German photographer (on that front alone, I feel I have something in common with him!), whose Sonnets series I really like, and who explores all kinds of traditional photography – not as a gimmick, but as an artistic tool. Twitter: @AlexBoyd.
- Ian Cameron
- a landscape photographer who creates evocative images, many of them from Scotland; I find his philosophical reflections on how he creates his images very attractive.
- Joe Cornish
- a great contemporary landscape photographers; I like his books on Scotland’s Coast: A Photographer’s Journey and Scotland’s Mountains: A Landscape Photographer’s View. He publishes Great British Landscapes with Tim Parkin (see below for both of these).
- Vladimir Donkov
- I came across Donkov via Bruce Percy’s site (see below), and spending time on Donkov’s site it’s easy to see why Bruce would like his imagery. His bold, but somehow also very intimate landscapes are the most fascinating for me.
- Mabel Forsyth
- a gifted local (to me) photographer, with a great eye for captivating monochrome images. She’s also a very talented illustrator. Twitter: @pinkpig3.
- Rob Hudson
- although I think he earns most of his income as a (very creative) wedding photographer (in south Wales), he also has interesting ways of communicating landscapes in his photographs. And his politics seem to be relatively close to mine!! Twitter: @RobHudsonPhoto.
- Michael Kenna
- beautifully simple, minimalist landscape photographs. An inspiration to many; his gorgeous book, Huangshan, feels more like a collection of intimate and very personal portraits of the Chinese mountain range – they transcend the traditional idea of landscapes.
- David Langan
- a Scottish landscape photographer based in Aberdeen; I particularly like his beach/sea images. Twitter: @dave_northlight.
- Magnus Lindbom
- Swedish landscape photographer. I feel his images are startlingly beautiful, emotional and very personal, combining bleakness with warmth, simplicity with imagination. Twitter: @MagnusLindbom.
- Tony Mamic
- dreamy, minimalist black and white scenes – a gorgeous collection of images (and prints are for sale).
- Michael Marten
- this is not me! This MM started the Science Photo Library, but now creates landscape photography on various themes.
- Tim Parkin
- a landscape photographer from Yorkshire in northern England. Publishes Great British Landscapes along with Joe Cornish (see above), and runs large format photography workshops. I don’t think he’s related to Deborah – see below! Twitter: @timparkin.
- Bruce Percy
- an Edinburgh-based (so local for me) landscape and travel photographer extraordinaire – and he runs fantastic photography courses that I can personally recommend too! His ebook on photographic processes is fantastically helpful, as are many of his other ebooks. In 2011 he published a retrospective book, and is now working on new books. Twitter: @brucepercy.
- Ken Rockwell
- is probably known mostly for his excellent reviews of camera stuff, despite making the point repeatedly that what matters are the photographs, not the equipment. His colour saturation is way over the top for me a lot of the time, but interesting stuff nonetheless.
- Galen Rowell
- another great landscape photographer who also wrote very thoughtfully about photography.
- Iain Sarjeant
- based in the Scottish highlands, Sarjeant mostly photographs landscapes, but also some interesting cityscapes. Twitter: @iainsarjeant.
- Sven Seebeck
- a German landscape photographer who lives in Finland, he captures beautiful light landscape images. Twitter: @svenseebeck.
- Tim Smalley
- based in England, Tim Smalley photographs all over the UK. I really like the way his images deal with both detail and broad vistas – in some ways questioning whether details are not also broad vistas of a different kind. Twitter: @TimSmalley.
- David Stanley
- a landscape photographer who also writes stimulating reflective articles about his work (though as of the end of 2010 his site seems somewhat dormant).
- Nancy L Stockdale
- an academic working in a similar field to mine – but she is also a wonderful photographer (known online as Futurowoman).
Portraits/models
Some of these are commercial and advertising photographers, but I have them listed here for their creative use of portraiture.
- Kirsteen Bell
- Bell started following me on Twitter (from @KBellPhoto) and I visited her site: it’s a newish blog (as of March 2011), but playful and creative images abound; I look forward to her having a full site with gallery at some point.
- Jim Chuchu
- absolutely stunning portraits, with a lot of African imagery (he’s from Nairobi).
- Alastair Cook
- a Scottish photographer (and filmmaker) who uses traditional photographic methods. His background as a conservation architect informs much of what he does. Twitter: @AlastairCook.
- Nick Fancher
- I first stumbled over the portraits and fashion shots on Nick Fancher’s site, but some of his travel images are very striking too.
- Carolyn Hampton
- I particularly like her narrative portraiture, though she pursues various subjects. Twitter: @Carolyn_Hampton.
- Macquillage of Curiosity
- along with a variety of other themes, she produces many self-portraits. Some of them are rather strange, though I find many at least interesting (and some are stunning) in their mood, composition and lighting.
- Max Marinucci
- gorgeous, simple images, mostly in black and white (do ensure you have your sound on when you visit this!).
- Deborah Parkin
- a fantastic portrait photographer; I have her Childhood Narratives book that I reviewed on this site: very beautiful, and somewhat disturbing, but in a good way! Twitter: @deborahparkin.
- Fabrizio Perilli
- portraits that I think really feel as if they are penetrating into the subject’s inner life.
- Helen Pugh
- local (to me), I like her imaginative portrait work.
- Carl Radford
- Radford’s work centres on portraiture using old analogue processes, in particular the wetplate collodion process (that Alex Boyd, Alastair Cook and Deborah Parkin – see elsewhere on this page – also use, and that I’d like to try out one day!) Twitter: @CarlRadford.
- Douglas Robertson
- another local: I’d heard of him, but never consciously seen his engaging photographs until one of his former models alerted me to his work. His studio also serves as a music venue!
- Brad Trent
- ‘standard’ commercial portraits (but exceptionally well done), along with a lot of creative portraiture – and his blog gives endless helpful details of how he set up the lighting for particular images. And the name for his company is fun too!
- Chris Weeks
- some fantastic portraits.
Interiors, still life and advertising
Although much advertising photography is technically brilliant, it mostly leaves me rather cold. But here are some that I think are more interesting…
- Chase Jarvis
- a prolific photographer and blogger/self-publicist; he’s fantastically enthusiastic about everything (and he has a great sense of humour!).
- Indra Moonen
- under the name Contrastique, this Dutch photographer, Indra Moonen, uses mostly traditional methods to capture interiors and some landscapes. Twitter: @Contrastique.
- Stan Musilek
- Musilek’s work is wonderful – beautiful, elegant, striking, and above all, engaging.
- Lucas Zarebinski
- still life and commercial photographer, who produces beautiful art.
Photojournalists and event photographers
Having in the past had some of my own photographs used in the press, I have an abiding interest in the ways in which photographs communicate new stories. This (relatively new) section lists some of the more engaging photojournalists I’ve come across.
- Mohamed Adel
- a great Egyptian photographer.
- Kate Brooks
- an amazing photojournalist covering much of the Middle East and other conflict areas.
- Rula Halawani
- deeply moving photographs from Israeli-occupied Palestine.
Other resources
These are some of the more useful resources that I have turned to in the process of developing my own photography.
- Beyond Words
- undoubtedly the best photographic bookshop in Britain, and certainly amongst the best in the world…
- Great British Landscapes
- a magazine devoted to the artistic aspects of landscape photography, i.e. it doesn’t just focus on equipment. Some of it is free, and the parts that are not can be licensed on short or long subscriptions. It’s a very stimulating publication, and I recommend it. It’s run by Tim Parkin and Joe Cornish (both listed here too). They even produced a wee feature about my photography as I was one of the early subscribers. Twitter: @LandscapeGB.
- Mechanical Icon
- an intriguing collection of short videos discussing iconic photographs. Despite (a) a bias towards American images (it is an American site, after all), and (b) some rather cheesy pop psychology at times, Mechanical Icon is nonetheless a really interesting way to reflect on images that we tend to think we ‘know’.
- Stills
- Scotland’s photographic resource centre: exhibition space, teaching, equipment and studio usage… a wonderful place!
