Photo courtesy Sophie Martin-Castex
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Photo courtesy Sophie Martin-Castex
YOU
SMC: Where
do you live?
CW: I live in Dorset, in an old mill house by a river.
SMC:
How old
CW: I’m 53!
SMC: Background
CW: I started as an actor, then I photographed actors and
then went into photography
SMC:
What are your current and future projects?
CW: My current projects are to promote landscape photography
more as an art form and to continue to do that.
As much as I can do, and all the time.
And to do limited edition prints for corporate clients.
SMC: You
are running very well known workshops, what is your main motivation for doing
this?
CW: To introduce to other people the joys and the rewards of
photographing the landscape. Which can be very considerable… it’s a very enriching
experience.
YOUR WORK
SMC:
Lot’s of people regard you as a master of landscape photography.
Do you feel motivated to do more and better?
Or are you scared of being disappointing?
CW: Very interesting! I
have got such a long way to go, a long long way to go.
I know everybody says that. And
they say you are only as good as your last photograph.
And that’s absolutely true, many many more years of trying!
The Manger, Uffington, Berkshire
SMC:
Because you mainly shoot landscapes did you have to acquire different virtues to
achieve your results, such as patience? Humility?
Or something else?
CW: No luckily I am extremely patient.
I was very very bad at school, bad at concentrating.
And I spent a lot of time just looking up at the sky out of the window. So I already was very patient and could wait days for what I
wanted. So no, no.
I think I’m qualified to do what I do because I can hang around for so
long…….anyway my name is Waite!
SMC:
Along your photographic career did you go through different phases, different
styles?
CW: Yes photographing first when I finished acting I assisted
advertising photographers. I went into their studios and I was very impressed by all the
work they did with wine photography, bottles of wine cars pack shots and all of
that. Very impressive, so I thought
about that then it made me think about lighting. Then I photographed my actors, but all the time in the
background was a need to be outside photographing the landscape just looking at
it, being in the natural world.
Rapeseed fields, Wiltshire
SMC:
What is the strangest thing you had to shoot?
CW: The strangest thing was……..gosh….good question.
The strangest I ever had to photograph was a quarry…..in other words a
great big hole in the ground where they get stones and rock out of the ground.
Where they dynamite it! The
quarry was completely opposite to the sort of landscape that I love.
I like to see things alive, things growing, something really fertile and
this was digging aggressively into the earth and that seemed like an unpleasant
thing for me to have to photograph. So
emotionally I found it really difficult. Yep!
SMC:
Do you have a routine in your work? Or
do you make your routine as you go along?
CW: It’s very haphazard.
I don’t really have a routine. In
fact I’m going to France without a map for three weeks.
That will be nice just to drive without a map.
SMC:
How do you research new locations for your work?
CW: I do look at a map then and I look for elevations.
I look for a little bit of height. I’m
not very good with really completely flat areas, although they are wonderful for
skies. So yes I do need maps.
But do remember I ‘m free to do anything I want.
So I can go anywhere I like really.
Namibia
SMC:
As we said, photographing landscape is your first choice.
What would be your second?
CW: I think to develop my writing, because I really do like
writing and I admire writers and the construction
they create. The way they work with
words. I would love to be able to
just pull the words out of the sky just the ones I need.
YOUR
GEAR
SMC:
Your equipment, what type of medium do you prefer
CW: Velvia! Usually, everybody likes it because it’s quite a glamorous
film. There’s a new one Kodak
have just produced, it’s called VS, very saturated.
That’s quite nice!
SMC:
You are very well known for your colour work, do you also work in B/W?
CW: I do! Surprisingly! Yes
I do. It’s not a new thing for me
because I’ve always been doing it. But
I’ve never published a book in B/W. So
that IS a new thing for me.
SMC:
A lot of your work is printed digitally, do you do this yourself?
What method do you prefer?
CW: I did it all myself, every one here I did myself and
I’m very proud of it. I had to
learn a little bit, but as long as my transparency is good then it’s not
really a problem. The only thing I
need to be concerned about is a little bit of contrast, maybe.
Depending on the paper I might have to alter a little bit of contrast but
otherwise I don’t make any changes.
YOUR
PICTURES
SMC:
What made you decide on a photographic career?
CW: Because I was a failed actor, not very good on the stage.
The relationship that I have with landscape reminds me of being in the
theatre, because any theatrical setting I always find very appealing.
Anything that involves lighting, obviously, is going to be appealing.
Also the landscape gives a lot back to me.
It’s all we have, so it’s an emotional thing but also it’s a
dialogue I have with landscape, a quiet silent dialogue I have with landscape.
SMC:
What is your favourite picture and why?
CW: My favourite is of a little shed in Aix-en-Provence where
Cezanne painted. It’s simply a
little modest shed with a mountain behind and sky above.
It was probably the first photograph where I felt a tingle in the hairs
on the back of my neck. I suddenly
thought “My God”! This is incredible! I
was elevated by it. I went into a
whole different dimension. I
thought “my word this is the most wonderful thing”.
When I got it back I couldn’t stop looking at it, all the time! I had a Polaroid of it on my dashboard of my car and I kept
looking at it and said to myself God I’ve got to do more like that!
SMC:
Are you the type of photographer who just takes one shot on a subject?
CW: I used to do a trial and error thing.
Everything possible, I tried this and tried that.
But now I know whether it’s going to be a success or a failure. It’s a bit like cooking you don’t mix it and put it in
the oven and hope. You know because
you’ve done it before.
SMC:
Do you like to show your pictures?
CW: Yes!
SMC:
Do you think you have a fair opinion of other photographers work?
CW: I’m learning much more to be appreciative of other
disciplines, most especially wildlife photography, which I have huge admiration
for. Photo-journalism, people like
Sebastion Selgado completely
…completely….I can’t think of words to describe this master.
Also I have great admiration for still life photographers who just work
in a studio nobody ever hears of. It’s
because they are artists, I saw a shower catalogue the other day and I thought
the catalogue was just so brilliant with these showers so beautifully done, the
water, the lighting I thought wow these people are so good and they are!
Namibia
SMC:
Do you keep all you photographs? Even
the crap stuff?
CW: No because I don’t have a great collection.
Only about 2000 - 3000 photographs.
I meet a lot of people who say they have 300,000 and I think are they
awkward? How can you have 300,000. I have got hardly any.
It’s pointless! I bin the old ones, If they don’t do anything for me why
would they do something for someone else? It’s
only the ones I think are remarkable that I keep.
Not very many.
SMC:
Your biggest disappointment in photography?
CW: My greatest disappointment is not so much a photograph,
it’s that I still haven’t really had enough time to do my own photography.
Which is something I feel completely fine about.
I feel I’m 10yrs behind. I
need more time. I need more time. I don’t want to be heroic and go up mountains, I want to go
back to France, which I think I love more than any other country in the world,
for all sorts of reasons. I
haven’t had enough time to spend in France.
Another disappointment is that I need to have the car.
It’s very hard to reconcile those two things.
That you need a car to go to and photograph beautiful places.
In a way I wish I could walk but that’s completely impractical so
that’s a disappointment. Another
disappointment is that I am unable to work in England as much as I would like
to. It doesn’t awaken anything in
me anymore, I don’t find the form that I look for, other photographers still
do like England. I like the Lake District, Scotland, Cornwall and Wales but
other places just don’t…..press my buttons.
Selestat, Bas Rhin, France
SMC:
What is your favourite “ingredient” for a good photo?
CW: A shed, a little shed. I want to live in it!
Just like a hermit!
SMC:
What is the difference between a good photo and a beautiful photo?
CW: A good photograph is usually uncluttered, usually will
inform the viewer of something more than what it actually is, so it’s not a
literal interpretation. A beautiful photograph would be something that is….Rather a
difficult question really because a beautiful one would be, a lot of people
would say, would be a scenic photograph which is not ordered or planned. You
just come across it, a lovely blue sky, pretty pretty.
But doesn’t have actually any pathos.
No gravitas!
YOUR
INSPIRATION
SMC:
Are you just suddenly inspired? Or
do you plan a project?
CW: I think my inspiration comes from a deep desire, usually,
to discover. And an element of
surprise I really like very much, so I hardly do any planning
SMC:
Who is your favourite photographer?
CW: I really like Henri Cartiere Bresson because of his order
and when you look at these peoples work they haven’t done thousands.
Just a few, a few classics! Same
with Ansel Adams, and I do like Ansel Adams, because of his discipline.
SMC:
What is your favourite subject?
CW: Water! Landscapes! Water and landscapes
SMC:
What are your favourite spots?
CW: France and the Ardenne, up in the northern parts and
where is some water, some of the Canal Du Midi, down that way.
SMC:
What are your favourite moods?
CW: Subdued……sometimes subdued, but still with light.
So subdued light, yes subdued light!
SMC:
How did you discover Wiltshire as a good location for landscape
CW: I live very nearby!
Wiltshire
YOUR
VIEW ON
SMC:
What do you think about contemporary photography?
CW: I am a bit dismissive of it because it’s often what we
call the Emperors New Clothes. The
curators of galleries have to be seen to be breaking new ground.
So they have to be seen to be embracing this new contemporary
photography, and presenting it as exceptional work, but usually it’s quite
slack in my opinion. And the more
out of focus it is, apparently, the better.
The more scratches, the more developer stains, the more people spit on it
and then a lot of people in America regard this as exceptional work, very
interpretative and conceptual. I
think it’s slightly anal.
SMC:
What changes has fame made in your life?
CW: It’s made me more insecure.
SMC:
Can you describe yourself in three words?
CW: Hesitant, unsure, inspired.
SMC:
What would be your advice to a beginner in photography?
CW: To produce an exceptionally high quality portfolio of no
more than ten photographs that you have total confidence in.
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The Making of Landscape Photographs
