Practical Photography - UK (2020-02)

An eye

for beauty

JasonStirlandis studyingBA (Hons)Photographyat

NorwichUniversityof theArtsandwill graduatein 2022.

instagram.com/jasonstirland

Photogr aPhy was a big Part of my

childhood. my grandmother was a keen enthusiast and

was always taking pictures with her ricoh ff-9 camera.

it was infectious and growing up i was often told i had

a good eye for a photograph, although i didn’t pursue

this interest until i started further education and began

to consider possible career options.

in 20 14 i was involved in a motorcycle accident,

which left me with a broken left foot and right hand.

while recovering, i started to see the world through

different eyes, and it became my mission to find beauty

in the world again. i bought my first camera – a Nikon

D5300 – a year later and really started to focus on

landscapes and the natural world. Living in the

countryside, i was surrounded by incredible views

and, even when visiting the city centre, i found that

i was still able to find flowers and wildlife if i took the

time to stop and look closely.

since then i’ve been lucky enough to travel around

the world and explore many beautiful places, from vast

deserted beaches in america and australia to the top

of  the mountains in New Zealand. Despite all those air

miles and exotic places, however, my journey brought

me back home to Norfolk.

i’ve now decided to take my interest further and go

to university to study it. there are many debates online

about whether a degree in photography will help or

hinder your career, so it was a tough decision to make,

but ultimately i felt that being around other creative

people would help me bounce ideas around and develop

my way of thinking about an image. Even though

i’m only part-way through the first year, i already know

that my photography will change a lot more over the

course of the degree.

the key to finding my style will be experimentation.

i’ve moved on from strong hDr images to more

toned-down finishes and can’t wait to try even more

types of photography. after my degree i’m hoping to

focus more on a documentary style, trying to make my

work tell a story for the viewer.

On a mission to seek out

natural world elegance,

Jason Stirland loves to

experiment with style.

student showcase

Above Jason’s experiments have taken him from garish

HDR edits to more subtle pastel tones, as seen in this trio of

beautifully-observed natural world studies.

88 PracticaL PhotograPhy