3 inches of water

This was the first time ever for me, to see parts of the Salar de Uyuni flooded. My guide said that the best conditions were when the water is only a few inches deep as it meant when walking around, no waves would be created. You don’t need a lot of water to create reflections.

I don’t think I’ve ever had the exact same conditions on any of my tours or workshops when I repeat them. I appreciate that for many, coming to Bolivia will be a once in a lifetime visit, but I often like to think that if a place resonates in some way with you, and you have the urge to go back, you should follow it.

I’ve found certain landscapes to be teachers. They just keep on giving. Bolivia is where I first started my unconscious journey towards simplification in my images. It is an old friend these days. It is now seventeen years since I first came here, and I have not tired of returning yet.

In terms of personal development and style, this can only come through visiting the places that resonate with you, and that give you something that others don’t see.

There are far too many people going to the same places and shooting the same things. This is very normal and natural: when we are learning to photograph we tend to gravitate to the locations and compositions that inspire us in other people’s work. But if one wishes to foster a personal style, I think it has to come from finding ‘your own’ places. Rather than following what everyone else is doing, find what interests you, and go with it.

I’ve had a long relationship with many countries and locations in South America. I am aware that these places have contributed to my style of imagery and as I say - have been teachers. I am always thinking and dreaming of where I will go next and I think the best way to find your own path, is to focus on what you love. Not what everyone else is doing.

From Bradord to California Dreaming

The wonderful artist David Hockney as died today.

Hockney first made a real dent in my universe in the film ‘Tim’s Vermeer’ and in his book ‘Secret Knowledge’ where he discusses how he believes many of the great artists used technology to make their great works. He believes Da Vinci and many others like Vermeer used the Camera Obscura to create their great works.

Case in point: Vermeer’s uncanny 3D realism paintings which shone above his contemporaries in terms of looking like ‘photographs’, which, if Hockney is right : they are. The ‘Girl with the Pearl Earing’ is not only a beautiful work of art, but it could also be viewed as a photograph that is recorded faithfully in paint.

All of Vermeer’s paintings were painted in the same studio room, are off similar dimensions, and seem to show chromatic aberrations and other lens defects in the final work.

For me, Hockney, like most, if not all, the painters I love, were photographers at heart. The only difference was that they used oil and their memory and imagination to show others what they saw.

Many photographer's make the error of assuming that we all see the same things.

In a literal sense I don’t even know if that’s really true, and how can I know? For how does one know that the red of the balloon that they experience, is the same red that others experience?

We cannot know. And we will never know.

No, photography is not literal, and it never has been. In a way, it is a lie that was spun many years ago that the camera captures what is there.

Photographs are interpretations. They do not show truth, because truth is often a matter of perspective.

To me, photography is the modern way of paining. If Da Vinci was alive, I am sure he would embrace the camera. He would look at is for what it is: a tool for image capture, and one which will create almost anything depending on who’s hands it is in.

Indeed, Hockney himself played with electronic mediums to create and display his images.

All photographers are painters. All painters are photographers.

I do not know of one notable photographer that does not love painting. Indeed, if I remember correctly, Henri Cartier Bresson starter as a painter, and in later life returned to it.

I love the world of painting. Paintings are photographs in oil, or watercolour or acrylic. For painters are obsessed with light and shade, or colour or monochrome. Photographers, like painters, love a great composition.

Hockney’s paintings are studies in light, shade and form. They are highly individualistic. He was not afraid to show others how he saw the world, and in my view, that is what painters should do.

It’s also what photographer’s should do: show others their unique vision of the world.

13 seconds On the Salar with Pete, Tommy & Vera

From my recent tour to Bolivia. Magical view of the Salar during Sunset. Once sunset had finished I recorded this short video during twilight on my DJI OSMO. I love making short videos as memories of my trips and the OSMO is very small and uber convenient.

I’m just home now. Time to decompress after six weeks away. Film procesing next, and two months worth of book keeping and admin to catch up on.

Uyuni Train Graveyard Graffiti

Yesterday we visited the Uyuni train graveyard. I’ve come here many times but never made any photos. Yesterday it was a lot of fun to take some very quick images over 30 minutes or so with my little Leica M240, which after one month has already developed a fault - the LCD stopped working :-)

There’s something to be said about working very quickly. There’s a fluidity to it. Rather than every step being overly considered, I find myself being able to be more free with decisions.

Anyway, these little travel vignettes are perhaps just turning out to be a travel blog of sorts. It’s good to create these kinds of images in-between my ‘landscape’ work, as I find my photographic eye is kept engaged throughout the day. Particularly during the times when the light isn’t so great for working on my landscape images.

180º to the sun

180º to the sun is where you will find the strongest sunset and sunrise colours. It is where you will experience the earth shadow at its strongest. Earth shadow is the blue (twilight) region in the sky, as can be seen in this image shot on my iPhone tonight on the Salar de Uyuni.

As the sun drops further below the horizon so the earth shadow heightens, until the entire sky is in twilight. In my iPhone image below, the earth shadow has just begun.

Tahua

I’m in the Bolivian town of Tahua today. This morning’s shoot was at a salt mine, and then we went for lunch. I am bringing my little Leica camera with me when we go out for lunch as I find some of the restaurants very interesting.

Today’s restaurant was on the top floor, and there was a lot of light streaming in the windows, lighting up the pale blue floor.

There is a simple charm to the Bolivian interiors. It’s a poor country, but people put a lot of pride into the little they have. I enjoyed very much making these shots of our lunch area.

I’m enjoying using a little rangefinder Leica again. It’s a simple machine, quite old, but relatively speaking a new camera for me, as all my Hasselblad film cameras are mid 80’s.

Bolivia Day 2

Some of the interiors of the buildings in Bolivia remind me of the stylistic design of Wes Anderson’s movies. Perhaps he should come to Bolivia someday.

The interior shots were made at my lunch. Shot over ten minutes or so, there was just so much on offer to digest. I loved the colour scheme that was present throughout the entire lunch area, and also its beautiful, dated charm.

Thoughts on mentoring

I’ve been mentioning folks now for over five years on a one to one basis, and I have some thoughts on what mentoring should be, and what anyone who is wishing to be mentored should consider before working with a photographer who’s work they like.

I think first and foremost, if one is going to look for a mentor, they should really try to answer the question as to why they want to be mentored, and what they are perhaps hoping to get out of the experience. And also - why that particular photographer?

There are a few things I think anyone who wishes to be mentored should consider before approaching someone for mentoring:

  1. You should choose a photographer because you think there is something about their work that you can learn from. Or because you think they may be a good teacher. Some photographers may be better teachers than they are photographers. While others may be great photographers but not so good at teaching. Do your research. Watch interviews, or read interviews, study their work, and philosophy. See if it resonates.

  2. Best to get an idea of what the expectations are before you begin. Having a clear idea of what you are expected to provide, and what the teacher will provide is key.

  3. As a student, you will be expected to put effort into the sessions, and provide images that meet exercises your teacher will set you. The only way to improve, is by doing the work yourself.

  4. The mentoring might not be what you expected. In fact, it probably won’t be anything close to what you anticipated. Going into mentoring with a photographer, I would advise you to keep your mind open, and go with wherever they wish to go with you.

  5. Try to leave your ego outside the sessions. As tough as it will be, your work will be up for review, always with the aim of trying to encourage you to broaden your skillset. This can only happen if you’re receptive to feedback. If you have a good teacher, you should come away from the sessions feeling encouraged, and with “buy in”. In other words, you should feel a belief and commitment to do the work you’ve been set.

  6. Best not to go into it, hoping that the teacher will love your work. They are not there to validate you. They are there, irrespective of how accomplished your work is, to give value and find some things to help broaden your skills. No matter how accomplished the work is, as a teacher it is my job to always offer something. In these circumstances I always make it clear that what I am offering is not a criticism of the work, but just different ways to consider the work. The aim is always to expand the students skills in either seeing or interpreting the work.

  7. Mentoring is a relationship, and as such requires honesty and accountability on both sides. You have to be ready to be vulnerable. As a teacher, i’m more interested in what you need to improve on, than what you do well already. To admit where you had difficulty or struggle is helpful for me in finding the areas we need to work on.

  8. Lastly, but perhaps the most important: try to submit work that is your own. This sounds harsh but what I really mean by this is you should submit work that is the least influenced by the photographer you want to be taught by.

    In my own case, I have no interest in repeating the same compositional devices or editing techiques that I did with a certain landscape, with a student’s similar imagery. Yet it is not uncommon to be sent submissions that are of the same locations or similar compositions as my own.

    I would urge you to try to find images that you know are your own work, and do not “borrow” too heavily from the teacher you are hoping to work with. This will have several benefits;

    a) it will be more interesting for the teacher to work on things they are unfamiliar with
    b) it will allow your teacher to remove themselves from your work
    c) you and your teacher will be in a more neutral place for the mentoring to begin

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Ok, so there is a lot to think about above. But important points to consider.

I would say however, that it’s ok to pursue mentoring, even if you can’t answer some of the questions I’ve put forward for you to consider. I merely wish to put them forward as food for thought.

Cusi Cusi

I’m in the Puna highlands of northern Argentina today. Exploring more of the Puna region. Went out this morning in -10ºC temperatures to shoot some beautiful landscapes. All shot on Fuji Velvia 50 with my Hasselblad film camera.

The rest of the day is sitting around in the dryness of the desert with not much to do. So I played around with some more images I shot on my little Leica M240 camera from the surrounding towns in the highlands here. More wall art and interiors.

I’ve been feeling I should be documenting my travels more. Not just focus on the landscape photography side of it. Perhaps it’s the realisation that I am approaching 60 next year, and it’s making me think that I should have been documenting my travels in the past. I’ve been a photographer for 17 years now (full time), and I had always made a distinction between my landscape work and any other kind of imagery. Always feeling that anything outside of my landscape work would be irrelevant, or throw away nonsense, but I’m curious if I can make some nice documentary images as well of the environments etc while I am sitting around between the landscape shoots.