1.2 Photographic Research/Charlie Waite

Charlie Waite was born in 1949 and first worked in British theatre for 10 years becoming fascinated by lighting and design, before gradually being drawn to photography and landscapes and the way they can be revealed to us by light and shade.
He has practised photography for 25 years and shown work in the National Theatre and OXO Gallery as well as solo exhibitions all over the world.
With 27 book published, he is one of the most celebrated international landscape photographers.

He also has a tour comany 'Light and Land' with specialist photographers who run workshops all over the world, dedicated to bettering photography.  He says he is passionate in his desire for people to revisit the camera and see it as it should be seen -" a hugely creative tool which allows everyone an opportunity to express themselves artistically and which provides a means of drawing us closer to the essence of the world around us".

Charlie Waite enjoys photographing scenery that has resulted from human interaction with the land, the patterns left by a plough, dry stone walls, patterns of fields, particularly after rain.  He is fascinated by a rural way of life and the idea of working the land and growing your own food.  He also enjoys architectural settings, the English country park where generations have worked and moulded the landscape.

His early influences  include the impressionist painters, Claude Lorraine, a French landscape painter for one, after he was encouraged by his mother to visit art galleries and he began to study how they worked with light to bring depth to their work.

He has also studied the work of Laurence Whistler a glass engraver whom he says can "craft beaded light onto a glass with his fine engraving technique".

An image that has had a lasting impression on him is 'Grand Central Station in 1934' by Hal Morley, although this is not a landscape it is a large panoramic picture, full of pattern  and atmosphere, with light streaming through the windows onto the concourse below, much like sunlight breaking through clouds after a storm.

Charlie Waite says he truly understood how to use light when he took what he believes to be his most memorable picture, that of the view of St Claude Valfin in France, bathed in golden light, each time he looks at this image he is transported back to the scene.

I admire all of Charlie Waites work but am particularly drawn to his seascapes. 

The picture above is taken from Chesil beach in Dorset, the sun is very low in the sky and just breaking through covering cloud, forming diagonal patterns which point down through the picture leading the eye into the distance, creating a feeling of depth and vastness to the ocean.  The foreground echoes  the diagonal lines of the sky but adds a different texture with pattern in the  pebbles, whilst the breaking water adds softness and yet another texture.  Colours are of a similar tone and soft and muted with harder edges brought in by the darker tones.  Interest is added with the shape of pebbles, frothy surf, undulating ocean and thick breaking clouds.  We can see definite thirds with the sky, sea and beach.

This is a format which he uses often, getting in close and low to his subject, to ensure detail and interest in the foreground from where the eye is drawn into the picture to explore further.  The time of day he takes his pictures is important since when the sun is low this adds shadow and texture to the scene.   The colour temperature is also important, morning and evening adds warmth and depth. 

I intent to try all of these criteria to improve my images, getting down low to give a different perspective, going out early and late in the evening to take advantage of warmer light and using some device to lend depth and scale.

 The quality of light is very important in all photography,  but particularly when taking landscapes, since it changes a scene from being a flat representation of what is in front of you,  to one of subtle interest and variation.  I have not yet been able to  achieve this in my pictures but plan to get out at different times of the day in order to test this for myself.