It’s hard to sum up the American west coast without mentioning the climate and geography. Whether it’s the pounding surf, sublime inter-tidal range or sheer cliffs disappearing into blinding summer fog, the natural beauty of the area is a photographer’s dream.
However, as I was looking forward to capturing this essence with my lens, a quote caught my eye. According to Pablo Picasso’s biography, the great artist once noted “…Success is dangerous. One begins to copy oneself, and to copy oneself is more dangerous than to copy others. It leads to sterility.”
The line obviously resonated because I couldn’t stop thinking about it during the rest of the flight to San Francisco. After a hastily arranged shopping trip, I was soon armed with Tmax 100 black-and-white negative film and my beloved Fuji Velvia was relegated to a dark recess of a bag.
On the road, I began concentrating on smaller, more ephemeral details and eschewing things like horizons or recognizable landmarks. Partially driven by the film choice, I was soon reacquainting myself with the unforgiving compositional demands of black-and-white. As the panoramic frame is best read from left-to-right (in response to the written word in the Western world), I focused on scenes that would compliment this facet. The only upside was having a tonal range of around eight to ten stops compared with three to four in transparency film.
I hope you enjoy the scenes and I trust that I managed to convey how terrifying and exhilarating it can be to move out of a well-worn comfort zone…
