A curve, a line, gradated tones. That is ultimately what photographs are.
Photographs are also aesthetic signatures. Each of us has our own: the hues and contrasts that each of us is attracted to, or find pleasing are part of the personality of the work we produce. We all have our own signature.
I’ve often thought of my landscapes as teachers. It is why I return to some of them on a yearly basis. Because there is much still to do, much still to explore. And often some kind of progress, or development in any stylistic approach I’ve found.
2024 set
Two small portfolios. The above set shot in 2024. The set below shot in 2019.
To me, the 2019 set were working more with the lines and shapes of the lagoons. The 2024 set are slightly more abstract in nature and I am deliberately playing with the loss of information of dune slopes, so that some of the lagoons appear to be hanging in space. It feels like a refinement to me. The tones have been pushed out more. The lagoons are darker and the sand lighter. More graphic.
2019 set
And the set I produced in 2025 (below) are somewhat more a return to what I was shooting in 2019. More back to regular lagoon shapes. Less abstract compared to the 2024 set.
Partly this is because I think I just didn’t find the conditions lent themselves to going more graphic on the work, but mostly I think because I just didn’t feel that I wanted to go so graphic on the set.
I’ve noticed that around 2024, the work I was producing was becoming very minimalistic and more graphic. I really like the work from this year, and somehow, through no direction of my own, the graphic sensibilities eased off. It’s as though I got tired of pushing things too graphic. But I think it’s simply more that creativity tends to ebb and flow. One year I may go super graphic with the work. Another year I may find less so.
2025 set
Irrespective of whether these sets are better than the other - I much prefer to consider that they are the result of light / landscape and photographer variances. I tend to be variable :-)
But it does illustrate that returning to the same landscape to make pictures each year, often does not result in making the exact same set as before. Or that there will be a mood or difference in what you get based on your own mental state and what the landscape is providing.
That is why I always enjoy returning to and repeating landscapes. They get under my skin and I know that it is impossible to repeat what I did before - even if I tried. And always impossible to go back to ‘capture what I missed last time’.