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B+WWHAT TIMDID THISMONTHThe photographer I’ve chosen
for you this month is Derek
Hudson, a documentary and
portrait photographer. Hugely
experienced in visual storytelling,
he chose early in his career to
document conflicts worldwide,
later in his career crossing over
to the slightly less perilous field
of portraiture. He is very much
the kind of photographer I admire,
always pushing himself and
never standing still. He also has
a fascinating Instagram feed
(@derekhudsonphoto) on which
he tells some great stories about
his work, reminiscing about
famous portrait sessions and
behind the scenes insights.
See derekhudson.com.I’m having the usual yearly
refresh of my website, an often
frustrating, but always welcome
procedure. It’s very important not
to stand still as a photographer
and (to take a leaf out of this
month’s chosen photographer’s
book) constantly re-invent
yourself. Don’t let people get
bored of looking at your pictures
by seeing your website stagnate.
Always remember: if you’re a bit
bored with it, why should you
expect anyone else to get excited?The pictures this month are
all from an effort to tell more
photographic stories on my
website. They were shot during
a wonderful couple of days we
spent on a remote farm in the
Carpathian mountains in western
Ukraine a couple of years ago.All images © Tim ClinchW
hen it comes to
social media there
is only one place
to source the
best of photography these days
and that place is Instagram.
I treat my Instagram feed as
if it is a little community, my
little community. Among my
followers and people I follow are
friends, fellow photographers
and colleagues, people whose
images I admire, people with
work that slightly annoys me,
famous photographers and their
archives. There are people who
I have never met but who always
comment and whom I hope oneday to meet, people I would love
to work with but probably never
will, people who I have already
worked with (many of whom are
often to be seen working with
fellow photographers I follow –
grrrrrrr!), magazines, publishers
and so on. So, as with any
community of friends and like-
minded individuals, I like a bit
of interaction and some
verbosity. There are lots of
people on Instagram I always
read and whose ideas and
comments are guaranteed to
make me think. In fact, I think
Instagram is the ideal place for
captions about photography.Now, I like wine and spend
a fair bit of time photographing
it and the people who make it.
Because of this I follow many
people involved in the wonderful
world of wine. The language of
wine is notoriously flowery so,
just like with descriptions of your
photography projects, beware
of sounding like this wine writer
(who shall remain nameless) who
recently described a wine I had
photographed as having ‘aromas
of rich dark currants, nectarine
skins, gushing blackberry, but
lots of fragrant tobacco, rich soil,
white flowers, smashed minerals
and metal. Medium-bodied andsaucy but racy acidity stabilises
the wine nicely with the robust
tannins. Deep red currants and
ripe cherries, laden with mocha,
loamy soil, charred herbs, pencil
shavings and roasted hazelnut...’
In writing, in design and in
photography – less is more.