Editor’s Comments

NICKI GWYNN-JONES FRPS

When Andreas Klatt rang me a few months ago and asked me to contribute an article for this edition little did I imagine that I would end up as the guest editor.

However, he has a most delightful line in persuasion and I was thrilled to be asked, not least because it has given me the chance to be in touch with a group of photographers whose work truly inspires me. My brief to them was that they could write about anything they liked but that there was to be no mention whatsoever of camera settings…

If I had to settle on one idea that links this issue’s featured photographers it would be that one way or another we are all seeking to portray the essence of our subject matter:

Iñaki Hernández-Lasa has harboured a lifelong love of architecture and this has led him to specialise in photographing some of the most beautiful - and recognisable - contemporary buildings in the world. What marks him out for me is his wish to communicate the architect’s feelings and intentions for a building, which he does with sensuality and an uncommon understanding of the drama of natural light.

Caroline Fraser‘s work speaks to both art and poetry and is deeply personal. She writes about the book project that became a tribute to her late father, and the mood that she creates as she describes the trip to Scotland that instigated the project is heart-breakingspare, minimal and lonely.

I was fascinated to read about the way in which classical Chinese ink paintings influenced Lee Yuk Hung’s interpretation of the decaying walls that he was photographing, and as he chats to bystanders, astonished that he can see beauty in the neglect, I get the sense that they really do experience the gift of a different way of seeing.

I first encountered the work of Tom McLaughlan on Facebook and in his Ministract blogs. He is completely self- remain the anchor in production, editorial responsibility will be shared in a small team, with Linda Wevill FRPS taking on the next issue in turn. Collaborative and diverse ingenuity is required to create what is undeniably an expression of visual art. Our magazine is a quiet statement of purpose, convincing in every aspect from choice of content to quality of print, because it needs to answer the perennial question of ‘What is visual art?’. It should lift us. And it does.

Andreas

taught and what first caught my attention was his natural talent for composition and his extraordinary eye for pattern and colour - he sees in ways that I know I never could. He writes about the creative force of curiosity and applying the seven aesthetic principles of Zen to photography.

Paul Mitchell is a master of many types of photography. I do not know anyone else who can produce woodland images of such luminous delicacy and beauty, and I find it fascinating to read that he avidly studies the great English landscape painters. Here, too, is the proof that you do not need to travel far in order to make world class images…he really can see the wood for the trees.

As for me, right now it is as if Orkney is adrift in a universe of wind and rain, but as you will read, I did move here with a need to immerse myself in life on the edge… Thank you so much for reading - I do hope that you enjoy the magazine.

Nicki