Skye

I first went to the Isle of Skye when I was 15; there is a definite kinship with the island. Post covid, I decided to tackle the idea of starting a project on Skye; the light and the colours are unique. I wanted to eradicate all human elements and create images that reflect the colours and light rather than be bound by the traditional confines of the landscape. I read about how J W Turner tied himself to the mast of a boat and sailed into a storm on the Thames estuary to experience the feeling of the elements. I can relate to this. Sometimes, you just have to observe without a camera to become inspired to know which direction to take.

I have never been interested in the technical aspect of photography. I feel photography sometimes in-prisons itself in its own science. I am interested in the play on time from when the shutter opens to when it closes; imagine two book ends: one is for when the shutter opens and the other for when it shuts. What happens between these two points is interesting: the longer the exposure, the more time is captured. I guess it is going away from Henri Cartier Bresson's ‘decisive moment’, which captures a moment rather than a longer passage of time. 

The images lead the viewer into the colours and the light first rather than the preoccupation of where it has been taken. Stripping back the image to simple elements of colour and light enables the viewers to be open to the elements as if they are emersed the landscape. If you look at Rothko or the work of Howard Hodgkin, you don’t quite know why you are drawn in; something happens in the subconscious to let you instinctively determine your emotional response.

The images draw out a response similar to being immersed in the landscape rather than a passive gaze.