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nearly empty

By the shore of Lake Brienz in Switzerland in 2003, I was about to get into my car and give up on a beautiful but impenetrably misty start to the day on the lake. There was no view but sunlight was partly penetrating the low cloud to give a marvellous luminosity in a range of colours. The water was still and silky. Way above me, the tops of the surrounding mountains occasionally cleared the clouds and reached up into a clear sunny morning at high level. Although I couldn’t get the landscapes I’d come for it became clear that I should be photographing here.

A conventional landscape uses atmosphere to complement and enhance the portrayal of a subject. In Nearly Empty I intend the reverse - the atmospherics are the subject, and the spare, exclusive compositions reflect my view that if a conventional “subject” appears in the image too strongly, it would intrude and the emphasis on atmosphere I wish to communicate will be at least diminished and maybe lost altogether. So I’ll use clouds and mist and size to obscure and control the impact of “subject” on the image.

I did consider avoiding subject altogether and titleing the series simply “Empty”. But some of the most effective photographs (my opinion) have a little something of conventional subject, albeit partly obscured – whether it’s a mere glimpse of peaks at the distant end of a Swiss Lake; or the very summit of the Eiger sighted through an unexpected hole in boiling cloud - I hope to get the balance right so I can accept the contribution these make without allowing them to dominate. The atmospherics are my real subject. Conveying that atmosphere is my objective.

And I’d like to do so simply and unambiguously, with no unnecessary complexity, and without any concern over whether folks get it.

So far, most of my Nearly Empty photographs have involved water. This doesn’t reflect a principle that this should be so; it is a practical response to the fact that I’ve found it easier to achieve what I’m aiming for in this series with a reflective foreground, whether water or wet sand or mud.

1.   Lake near Hofn,        Iceland
02.  White Sands,  New Mexico
3.  Dunes,   White Sands    New Mexico
04.  Ross Back Sands,  Northumberland
5.   Sandscape,     Seilebost,       Isle of Harris
06.  Moeraki,  New Zealand
7.    Reflections near Hofn,   Iceland
08.  White Sands,    New Mexico
9.   Luskentyre,   Isle of Harris
10.  Luskentyre,  Harris,  Hebrides
11     Luskentyre,   Isle of Harris
12  Lagoon at Hofn, Iceland
13.    Rossnowlagh,   Donegal.
14.   Dungeness,  dawn
15.   Jokulsarlon, Iceland
16   South from San Quirico,    Tuscany
17.   West Fjords,    Iceland
18    White Sands,   New Mexico
19.   Rossnowlagh,   Donegal
20.    Near Cley, Norfolk
21.    Lagoon, Hofn, Iceland
22.   Dungeness,      Kent
23.  White Sands,  New Mexico
24.    Sandwich Bay,      Kent
25.  Rossnowlagh,   Ireland
26.    Whitstable,     Kent
27.   Culkein,   Assynt,   Scotland
28.    Sandwich Bay,       Kent
29.    St Margarets,    Kent
30.  Rossnowlagh,   Ireland
31.    Winchelsea,    Sussex
32.   Low tide, Benbecula Causeway.
33.  Rossnowlagh,   Donegal
34.  Lake Brienz,   Switzerland
35.  White Sands,   New Mexico
36.    Eiger obscured,      Switzerland
37.  Rossnowlagh,    Donegal
38.   Bamburgh,    Northumberland
39.   Skardsfjordur,     Iceland
40.    Rossnowlagh,      Donegal
41.  Rossnowlagh  Overlook
42.  Loch Linnhe,   Scotland
43.    White Sands,   New Mexico
44.  Shell Seekers,  Coronado,  California
45.  Collingwood,    New Zealand
46.  West Fjords,    Iceland
47.   Rossnowlagh,      Donegal
48.  Wet Dawn,   Streedagh,    Ireland
49.   White Sands,     New Mexico
50.  Bamburgh,   Northumberland

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