On my last tutor report for Colour, it was mentioned I should take a look at Joe Cornish for assignment 4 ‘Light’. Although I don’t own any of his books or publications at the moment I did a good look at his work on the internet and his website Joe Cornish Gallery.
Joe is a UK based photographer specialising in Landscapes and fine art. Based in Exeter he worked as an assistant for four years in London and Washington DC. His early work included travel and landscape photography and it was accepted into Charlie Waite’s photo library called Landscape Only. Interesting he moved up to North Yorkshire, not far from where I live, and started to shoot primarlily with 35mm and 6×6 film, and later on started to use a Horseman SW 612 wide-angle camera. After another year he switched to 5×4 cameras.
In 2006 Amateur Photographer honoured him with their annual Power of Photography award, and in 2008 he was made an honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society. His has published many books on landscape and contributes to the National Trust.
Joe also has a number of excellent photos which he has made into Greeting cards. Again many of the images are of North Yorkshire and Scotland with rolling hills and a sky full of menicing clouds, with deep shadows and strong contrast. I can only hope to get images half as good as this, and being in the right place at the right time, which no doubt involves very early starts and a lot of walking to obtain prime locations.
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Horseman SW 6×12
Looking at the images of Joe I am drawn to his way of dealing with light and colour in his images. Some of my favourite images are ‘Cleveland Way, late summer evening’, ‘Storm front, east of Whitby’, ‘Low tide, Bamburgh’,
I also intend to purchase one or two of his books. One in particular that interests me is called First Light. The review on Joe’s website reads ” Drawing on twenty years’ experience, Joe Cornish, on of Britain’s most distinguished landscape photographers, has distilled the key elements of his craft into a collection of thought-provoking essays accompanied by a stunning selection of his photographs. The subjects range from his beloved North Yorkshire, where he now makes his home, to the rocky canyons of the Colorado Plateau and from the rugged Cornish coast to the rainforests of New Zealand’s Fjordland”. I mainly buy books on Kindle, book I think this one will deserve a place on the coffee table and a valuable reference for landscape photography.
Another interesting book is a combination of three professional photographers, called ‘Working the Light’ this is a collection of images and masterclass’s by Charlie Waite, Joe Cornish and David Ward. The book shows us current projects, how they came about to make the publication, what inspires them, and how the work in developing the images. A mention on joecornishgallery.co.uk website states;
“Each of the three section of the book explores the theme of ‘working the light’ – surely the most critical and challenging aspect of landscape photography – with Joe Cornish writing about Wilderness Landscapes, Charlie Waite discussing Inhabited Landscapes and David Ward concentrating on inner landscapes. Each section also contains a Gallery Workshop in which the trio critique images submitted by clients of the renowned travel company Light & Land, offering the kind of constructive comment and positive advice that one would normally only expect to get in the field.
Working the Light gives its readers a real sense of taking part in a location workshop with Waite, Cornish or Ward while also preserving their wisdom in permanent form that can be referred to in the future. Follow-up volumes are already planned, with the next in the series looking to explore the concept of Developing Vision and Style.”
These two publications will be a useful and informative guide to the complexities of light, how to capture it and perfect for landscape photography.
Also having looked in David White and Charlie Waite I will also be taking a lot closer look into their work in the near future.
Ref:
O.C.A. BA (hons) Photography Degree Course 