complete control over outcome is nec-
essary or even desirable. The unpre-
dictable is sometimes more interesting
and lasting. Often, I return to the same
places over and over, searching, repeat-
ing, knowing that there’s more poten-
tial than I first realized. As the great
photographer Eugéne Atget taught us,
nothing is ever the same. Options are
endless. Of course, there may be an
obvious perspective, but it’s important
never to be satisfied with that.
It’s one of the advantages of working
with the silver process: I never know
when a good photograph has been
made. I therefore use doubt as a way to
wander off into alternative compositions
by selective focus, different speeds of
exposure and unusual perspectives.
I like to think of photography as a
slowly developing journey with infinite
possibilities. I look for what’s interesting
to me out there in the three-dimensional
world and translate or interpret that
scene, so it becomes visually pleasing in
a two-dimensional photographic print.
I search for subject matter with visual
patterns, interesting abstractions and
graphic compositions. The essence of
the image often involves the basic juxta-
position of our human-made structures
with the more fluid and organic ele-
ments of the landscape. I enjoy places
that have mystery and atmosphere, per-
haps a patina of age, a suggestion rather
than a description. I look for memories,
traces, evidence of the human interac-
tion with the landscape. Sometimes I
photograph pure nature, sometimes
urban structures.
But at the end of the day, I much pre-
fer a full cup of tea to an empty one.
And perhaps that tea at the end
of the day is sencha (Japanese
green tea) since you seem to have
a particular attraction to Japan?
My first visit to Japan was in 1987, and I
was hooked immediately.
There are many characteristics of the
Japanese landscape that resemble and
remind me of my homeland of England.
Japan is a country of islands, surrounded
by water. It’s a place that has been lived
and worked in and on for centuries. It’s
geographically small, and spaces are quite
intimate in scale. I feel there’s a powerful
sense of atmosphere that resides in the
Japanese soil, and, as I like to photograph
memories and stories, I feel strangely at
home wandering around this country.
There’s also a wonderful reverence for
the land, sometimes symbolized by the
ubiquitous torii gates, which mark the
entrances to Shinto shrines. The shrine
is often the landscape itself, an island,rock or group of trees.
If one spends time in Japan, I think
it’s impossible not to be influenced by
the Japanese aesthetic, the kanji char-
acters, the simplicity of artwork, the
reverence of a Buddhist temple. For
a number of years, I’ve been working
predominantly in Hokkaido, particu-
larly during the winter months, when
the landscape [is visually] transformed
by layers of snow and ice into a graphic
sumi-e painting.Santa Cruz, California®