There’s excitement afoot but more on that later in the month.
In the meantime, whet your appetite with this short clip broadcast last night by the BBC Look North team. You’ll also discover why I made the Tintypes below…
Click to see a short film on the BBC describing the beginnings of a new project…
BBC Look North reporter, Andrew Hartley, on a sunny day in Craster (Half Plate Tintype)
Tintype Selfie, lens cap opened for five elephants by assistant Robert (Half Plate Tintype)
From The Cobb, Lyme Regis, 7th July 2013
Now available as a signed, numbered and embossed print in The Sea Collection.
There’s something about the sea, isn’t there? Something stirring and primordial; to gaze out to the distant horizon is so many things to so many people.
Solace, hope, comfort, adventure and inspiration all spring to mind.
How many times have you driven along a coastline and seen people of all ages taking a stroll or simply sitting on a bench, looking so relaxed in a trance-like state as they stare wistfully towards the horizon?
How many times have you done just that yourself?
Tynemouth No.1
The draw of the sea is strong within my soul. At the moment, it’s not fully nurtured. I miss being among the waves and long to return to my love of sea kayaking some time soon.
Way back when, my father enjoyed a spell in the Merchant Navy and was also a deep sea diver in the North Sea.
Indeed, we spent the first few years of my life living on a beautiful old boat, so I’m sure these are just some of the clues that point to why I love the watery stuff so much.
A while back, I was invited to make a photograph on the theme of emotion for an NSPCC charity auction being held at the The Old Truman Brewery in London.
My choice of subject? To return to my birth town, Aberdeen, and photograph the sea…
Aberdeen
— My First Photo Book
On seeing his beautiful show at The Zelda Cheatle Gallery, the first photo book I ever bought was The Shipping Forecast by Mark Power.
The cover image still holds the same attraction to me now as it did then…
“The forecast stirs our residual contact with the sublime, our fading sense of epic scenarios, places where great, life-threatening forces are continually unleashed and where nature’s vengeful power always hovers over the horizon.”
Stirring words that certainly tap into my psyche, capturing the essence of what I still love about Power’s body of work.
— The Sea Collection
Llanbedrog Sunrise
The Cobb
As you might imagine, I’ve made many nautical photographs over the years.
You can browse and purchase my Archival Pigment Prints of the sea by clicking here.
Each print is made, signed and embossed by me, shipped to your door to provide a new window through which to wistfully gaze…
‘Llanbedrog Sunrise’ from The Sea Collection
— Further Inspiration
Here’s a short film that I’ve always loved, Dark Side of the Lens, and one I’m sure you’ll enjoy too:
“Subtle glimpses of magic others might pass by…something worth remembering with a photograph or a scar.” — Dark Side of the Lens
— The RNLI, Saving Lives at Sea
A final word…
You might well have guessed by now that my favourite charity is the RNLI.
As an island nation, the dedicated volunteers around our coastline are vital to ensuring the safety of those at sea for whatever reason.
I’ve been a fan of them since I was a boy. I loved this clip they posted of the Plymouth Lifeboat heading out on a shout in a Storm Force 10 gale at the back end of last year.
Hold tight…!
The Llŷn Peninsula sits on the very north western corner of Wales.
We (like many others) have always referred to it as the pig’s ear — think of Wales as the head of a pig in profile and the Llŷn Peninsula looks like the ear flopping over its brow…
Being one of the extremities of the UK mainland, the Llŷn certainly has a whiff of the outcrop about it — a stronghold of the Welsh language, it can appear rather mysterious to the outsider.
Let’s say that the music certainly stops when a man and his wife clearly not from these parts walk into a local bar!
So, if the Llŷn Peninsula has a whiff of the outcrop about it, then how could I possibly put Bardsey Island into words?
Lying the best part of two miles off the tip of the peninsula, Bardsey sits on the horizon, tempting onlookers with its Utopian presence.
The shape of it alone seems so perfect — I’ve sat for hours on the craggy peninsula, marvelling and daydreaming at such a beautifully simple and seemingly tranquil piece of land.
Steeped in history — with evidence of human activity dating back some 3000 years — 20,000 Celtic Saints are said to be buried on the island, stemming from a time when three pilgrimages to Bardsey were declared the equivalent of one to Rome.
It is my great pleasure to announce the release of an Archival Pigment Print of the above image — my first offering, available to buy exclusively on these pages.
The Archival Pigment Print of Bardsey Island, signed numbered and embossed…
Shot on 5×4 film back in 2002, the quality and detail within this photograph is extraordinary.
The prints are made using the very finest methods available, notably my favourite combination of HP Vivera Pigment ink and Hahnemühle Photo Rag 308gsm.
Each print is titled, numbered and signed by me on the reverse in pencil…
…and carries my embossed mark in the bottom right hand corner.
If you would like one of these very special prints, you should find everything you need to know here.
If there’s anything else you would like to know, please feel free to contact me and I will be more than happy to help.
I was first introduced to this part of the world back in 2002 when Condé Nast sent me on a mission to photograph the area.
The article was published in May of the following year and it was, without question, my favourite week of commissioned photography.
Condé Nast put us (me and my assistant) up in the gorgeous Georgian restaurant with rooms, Plas Bodegroes (pronounced Plass Bod Egg Royce).
I fell in love with the place, now an all-time favourite short break for my wife and I — a rare treat every few years or so…!
To offer you a glimpse of what it’s like to set foot on Bardsey Island, I’ve put together a collection of photographs on Behance from my second pilgrimage — this time a short break with my wife.
A (rare) photograph of me during my second ‘pilgrimage’ to Bardsey…
Those blues are rich, aren’t they?
Well, I kid you not, this was one of the most spectacular days we have ever experienced — with such searing sunshine and deep, deep blues we could have been anywhere in the world.
I read somewhere that with so much sea and so little land, the light appears to dance here. That sums it up pretty neatly!
So, I’ve now made two pilgrimages to Bardsey Island — I can’t wait for my third, my equivalent of one to Rome (but I’d surely like to go there too)…
The flora and fauna is stunning on Bardsey Island — we saw rare Alpine Choughs, a nesting pair of Peregrine Falcons circling around the cliffs below us and a Manx Shearwater (deceased).
At macro level, the range of lichens, plants and insects is extraordinary. Remember the Collin’s Gem series of books? Well, they’re still going strong and we always have them to hand.
And with such Celtish history on the island, a pilgrimage to other sites might well be in order!
The OS Landranger map of this area is always easy to remember — it’s sheet No.123!
From the beautiful Explorer range of OS maps, sheet No. 253 covers the western end of the peninsula…
Why not pay a visit yourself? You’ll find all the information you need to know here.
Jack Lowe 