Masters Of The European Landscape

On photography, wilderness and the differences between continents

By William Sawalich

Labels: Locations

This Article Features Photo Zoom

Bracken And Snow. Photographers begin with the ultimate complexity of the world and try to distill some simplicity. This is one of Ward’s simplest images to date: a succinct description of bracken and delicate tones in the surrounding snowbank.

Beauty is something that I, too, seek to capture in my images, but I also endeavour to capture more than an anodyne attractive quality. I want the viewer to have to work a little harder to understand them, to find the image visually intriguing and, hopefully, a little mysterious.

It’s true that Western Europe doesn’t have vast tracts of wilderness comparable with those in the American Southwest, but we do still have pockets of wild land. Since my images are often intimate, rather than expansive, a “pocket” is usually plenty big enough to provide me with material! I should point out that I like wild places for the opportunities they provide to capture formal purity rather than as symbols of wildness—of nature separate from man. My photography is often more about an exploration of form and space than about describing subjects in a literal way.

Poverty Flats. The blue, negative space is as important as the positive space in this image.

My favourite place to photograph is the one with which I’m emotionally engaged at the time I’m making an image; all other locations pale at that moment. Having said that, there are obviously places I love to re-visit—the northwestern Highlands of Scotland, the Outer Hebrides, northern Norway, the Northumberland coast and Iceland. These places provide me with a wealth of my favourite raw materials: bare rock, weathered wood, flowing water, ice, snow and grasses. I feel that almost all my best images are of such anonymous details, fragments of a wider undescribed landscape. In fact, the lack of identifiable features in my images has led some people to question whether I’m a landscape photographer. This argument is easily dismissed, I feel, as the landscape is still the subject of my images.

See more of David Ward’s photography at www.into-the-light.com

Talking about the American versus the European appreciation of landscape imagery, Strand says, “I think Americans admire landscape photography in general more than Europeans do. This is because of the tradition. Photography has always been considered an art form, and a photographer is considered an artist. In Europe, you’re only considered an artist if you have the education for it, and very few nature photographers have an education in photography.” Above: Waterfall on Austfonna Glacier, Svalbard, Norway.

Hans Strand
Sweden

In Europe, we landscape photographers have a pretty close relationship to each other, and we’re sometimes even going out shooting together, but we never take the same images. In the U.S., as I know it, professional photographers rarely go out together, but still shoot the same objects over and over again.

I was shocked when I visited Utah’s Delicate Arch in 1990. Arriving as a tourist, I had seen the arch in a brochure and I thought this would be an interesting spot to visit and perhaps take a shot of. When I arrived at the site, about 50 photographers were lined up to shoot the sunset light on the arch. I immediately realized the hopeless situation and how naive I had been. I went straight down the mountain without taking a single photograph. From then on, I’ve tried to find my own spots, where I can create my own compositions.

My style of taking pictures has changed over the years. In the beginning, I didn’t have any style; then I gradually started to shoot wide-angle landscapes with big foregrounds in the classical American style. Nowadays, I tend to go more abstract with my photography. My recent aerials from Iceland are an example of that style.

Aerial of Maelifell, Iceland.

When nature is too great, as it is in some of the places in the American Southwest, the photographer has very little to add. I find places like the Grand Canyon and Arches National Park being places more for contemplation and admiration rather than for photography.

In Europe, on the other hand, we’re not blessed with such a number of iconic landscapes. We simply have to look for other ways of taking pictures. Personally, I find great pleasure in shooting intimate landscapes. Wherever you are in the world, it’s possible to find magic in a few square meters. These intimate landscapes become your children, and you’re the sole maker of your compositions.

The northern tip of Sweden, Finland and Norway, the Arctic and Iceland [are my favorite destinations]—Iceland is the most fascinating place I’ve ever been. It’s actually very similar to the American Southwest, but much less photographed. Since 2000, I’ve been there every year to take pictures.

Dusk at the Kullen coastline, Sweden.

The losses of wild landscapes are in quick progress around the world, as in Europe. More and more densely populated as the world is getting, this problem just escalates. The wilderness around the corner virtually doesn’t exist anymore, and we simply have to travel to the fairly untouched spots to take our photos. The modern man seems to think that we have what we need in the cities and is forgetting that the wilderness is our cradle. Personally, it’s that feeling of origin which attracts me to nature.

See more of Hans Strand’s photography at www.hansstrand.com

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13 Comments

FinnPhotographer makes this comment

Wednesday 7 April, 2010

Great article! It's is so true that Europeans don't appreciate landscape photography very high. Althought there are many great photographers out there in Europe too.. as you can see =)
John Schickler` makes this comment

Saturday 10 April, 2010

Last summer I met a group of young campers from The Netherlands in Nova Scotia. They had been traveling through New England and the Canadian Atlantic Maritimes. They were amazed at the vast stretches of uncultivated land that was so much in contrast with their homeland. In North America, we are so fortunate to have so much subject matter with which to work. Dewitt Jones tells us to look for the beauty everywhere, even is the smallest places.
Kathy Noltze makes this comment

Wednesday 14 April, 2010

"The grass is always greener on the other side..." Living in Arizona's desert and mountain regions, I never tire of photographing landscape and like to include lots of wildlife--javelina, rattlesnakes, coyotes, buzzards--because we have an abundance. But I am intrigued by locations in Europe. To me, it matters not that the scene may have been captured by hundreds before me; it SEEMS like I'm the first at the time I take the photo. It's unique to me and I hope I convey that in my photographs. Good article.
Dale makes this comment

Wednesday 14 April, 2010

I think this is a really helpful article. I'm from Arizona but have spent about half my time in Europe the last two years and I resonate with the observations of the European photographers. There are many beautiful area, but the scale and nature are just different. I love Arizona but I also love Europe and especially the interaction of the people and the landscape. So thanks for the article.
Robin Whalley makes this comment

Wednesday 14 April, 2010

I have to agree that this is a great article. I am also intrigued by some of the comments about scale. Whilst this is true I don’t believe it’s the reason for the success or otherwise of Landscape Photography in Europe. Landscape is possibly the most popular subject choice of UK photographers in my experience. There is regular demand for me to give talks on Landscape as a subject from the Camera Clubs in my region of the UK and I suspect this is reflected elsewhere also. I believe the reason you don’t see many European Landscape Photographers is that there is no significant demand to generate income so it isn’t a viable route. If you have never experienced the Lake District in the North West of England or the Highlands of Scotland then you haven’t lived as a Landscape Photographer.
LindaBoomaars makes this comment

Thursday 15 April, 2010

Great to see an article dedicated to European landscape photography, sad to see it in an American magazine. I really miss this kind of articles in Dutch/Belgian photography magazins and in my experience it is a less appreciated form of photography as an art form ( "anyone can do it" mentality). In my opinion scale is certainly not the decisive factor in landscape photography - too big and the landscape is just so overwhelming you'll be really hard pressed to capture it in a picture. You jsut have to try to keep looking with fresh eyes, even when you visit a spot for the umteenth time.
John Kennedy makes this comment

Tuesday 4 May, 2010

Really enjoyed looking through this article, picked it up from the forums on ephotozine.com There's no doubt that scale does play a big part in our work over here in the UK, it'd be interesting to see some more work featured from other landscapers from Europe and to read other users opinions on it. jk
Ed Hardy makes this comment

Thursday 13 May, 2010

In America many people have a romantic idea of life in the countryside.
Alan Cameron makes this comment

Tuesday 25 May, 2010

It's nice to see some coverage of the European photography scene within a US magazine. I think in recent years, since the explosion of internet base photo forums, there has been a greater appreciation on both sides of the pond of each others works. I myself am a great admirer of David Wards work, and was lucky enough a year to spend a day with him on a small workshop run from, another fine UK photographers gallery in Oban, called Richard Childs, & on that course I learned more in a few hours than I did with months or years pouring over books. Maybe our transatlantic tastes in photography are like our differing tastes in music ;-) and as long as you have a wide appreciation of both, our photography will be all the better for that.
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Thursday 3 June, 2010

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Saturday 5 June, 2010

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