Professionals who only work in B+W

[Jarvman]

I'm still having no luck finding a professional photographer who soley works in black and white in the UK for my assignment. Can anybody help me by perhaps listing practicing professionals within the UK who only shoot analogue B+W. I want to look at somebody who does street photography ideally. Google is no help searching for what I want.

 

[david b]

Well he does not shoot street stuff, but Michael Kenna is a professional who only shoots b/w.

Are you talking commercial work?

 

[Jarvman]

His work is great, but ideally it'd be somebody who is or has made a living producing black and white film images in the UK. It doesn't have to be somebody who works soley in black and white, just somebody who prolificly uses it. Our brief is "why do people still shoot black and white?". I enjoy quirky street shooting, but this isn't what professionals make their income from, so perhaps a black and white landscape photographer. It needs to be someone I can draw parallels with my own work from. Welsh would be better.

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

How about our very own Les McLean? While he's not a Welshman, he works in black-and-white, does landscapes. I don't know what percent of his income is from photography, but I get the idea that it is a substantial majority.

 

[Travis Nunn]

How about our very own Les McLean?

He was going to be my recommendation.

 

[Jarvman]

His stuff is really nice too, but I would prefer somebody who has done more rural landscapes along the lines of Ravillious, who I was very impressed with the programme on last night, that or rugged seascapes. If I'm doing landscape I want some very dark moody stuff that reflects the kind of weather round here. It'd be nice to talk to somebody that has documented Wales and has published a book in black and white.

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

Look into some back issues of the UK B&W magazine. I know they've shown some Welshmen or at least Welsh landscapes in the last six months.

 

[pentaxuser]

Hi Jarvman. I may be looking at the very book for you. It's called Landscapes - Developing Style in Creative Photography. It is solely B&W and lists contributions from John Claridge;Gearge Davison;Adrian Ensor;Bob Hudak; George Jackson etc

Two problems: 1 They may not all be solely B&W photogs 2. They may not necessarily be all still practising or not with B&W film and just thought of this 3. May not all be still alive even. Mind you the book was only published in 2000 so it's not that old.

If this is of any interest, let me know and I'll list the whole gamut of photogs and then it may be a question of searching for websites

It's one of the few books I have seen dedicated to B&W landscape photography. Unfortunately it's a library book but may be in S Wales libraries as well. At least if you are interested I can quote the details such as ISBN.

Best of luck

pentaxuser

 

[Mike Crawford]

Hello
Do you not think you are limiting yourself by searching for a Welsh, B/W, film shooting landscape photographer who can actually make a living out of doing so? Surely your brief is to write about "why do people still shoot black and white?" That's a great subject and for me very important, but I do think that it is commercially impossible to maintain such ideals. As a photographic printer, I am still printing a lot of work in the darkroom for clients who shoot film, (though very little landscape except for my own urban landscape efforts), but am also doing a lot of digital work too. I manage to balance my work between the two mediums, which is fine by me as I enjoy working in both, though by nature I'm a darkroom monkey. I think you will find that most photographers who still work commercially with film, will also record things with pixels, or at least convert their work to digital at some point in the process, and perhaps they are the ones you should speak to as they still maintain a working practise using film. You should ask them why, given the convenience of digital, they still love and use film. Despite any digital leanings I may have, (and I am sure that many on this forum will have more than they will admit to), I do prefer shooting and printing black and white film when I know that I will be wanting to produce monochrome prints. Going back to your original question, have a look at the work of John Davies who has done some incredible work documenting the changing urban and sometimes rural landscape of Britain, (www.johndavies.uk.com), but do think about opening your catchment area outside of Cymru as there is some great work out here.

Best wishes and good luck with your project.
Mike

 

[dpurdy]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/voigtf64/

You might try researching in flickr. This guy here is one of my favorites and does very high quality work and seems to have a high output. I emailed him once and he got back to me. He was a perfectly friendly guy then.

I can't remember his real name but he works in large format as well as roll film. In studio as well as in the countryside and a fair amount of street photography.

 

[Jarvman]

Hi Mike, cheers for the masterclass at Bridgend College the other week! I could use you as my mentor but that'd be a bit too easy. I don't want to limit myself to a welsh B+W landscape photog necessarily. I'm just saying ideally it would be. I'm just really looking for someone who's work I appreciate that I can discuss with why they still shoot B+W film over other mediums. Thanks alot for the recommendations everyone. It's appreciated, I'll look into them now.

 

[gandolfi]

I don't understand why the photographer has to come from UK..

but how about making a thread about this subject?

you might get a lot of interesting wiews on the subject - and maybe some good leads...

 

[Jarvman]

Well they don't have to come from the UK. I just thought it'd be better. Make a thread asking why people shoot B+W negs? Good idea.

 

[Justin Cormack]

There is John Davies doing b&w landscape.

 

[Jarvman]

I've shortlisted John Davies and George Jackson to contact. I love that picture of the powerplant. I've seen that before. I like their work and could try something similar. I've got until Wednesday to think about this anyway so I'll carry on looking until then. Thanks for the leads.

 

[Mike Crawford]

Hello Jarvman
I wondered if you were from Bridgend as I remember that idea being talked about by one of the lecturers when I did the workshop. I was really impressed with the college, not only the equipment, (very good darkroom facilities and getting bigger too), but also the dedication of the students and staff. I re-read your original posting and realise that you were more interested in street photography. It's down that route, but what about David Hurn? I'm not sure where he is based in Wales, but he is best known for his black and white work. More details on him on the Magnum website.

http://www.magnumphotos.com/Archive/C.aspx?VP=XSpecific_MAG.StaticPage_VPage&SP=photographers_list&l1=0&XXAPXX=SubPanel10

If the link doesn't work, due to my cack handed lack of URL stuff, look on www.magnumphotos.com and find him under Photographers. There's also a 'whereabouts' map showing him to be the Magnum man in Wales.

Warning: If you haven't been on the Magnum website before, it can be very distracting and you will find you have been on for hours, going from photographer to photographer!

All the best
Mike

 

[Jarvman]

Cheers Mike, yeah it's a great college. I don't know about the enthusiasm from the students though! We're a class of slackers. I suppose it's the fact that we have to go over the basics again and the pace is a bit slow. That'll be all change this week though because they're bringing in weekly critiques and expect to see 5 quality images from us a week now.

I'm one step ahead, I already had a look at Hurn on Magnum earlier, and yeah you're right about it swallowing your time ogling the images on there. I've got one of his books here that I won as a prize from photomarathon last year. Perhaps I could get in contact with him. I was thinking of somebody less renowned though. Speaking of photomarathons, our college had one this week. It was digital though so a bit half arsed. it's not the same when you can shoot as many images as you want. With the official photomarathon you only get one chance at each of the topics. The titles were 'Make Your Mark', 'Lost + Found', 'Blue' and 'End'. This is how I interpreted them. Not amazing photos but it was a good laugh.

 

[Jean Noire]

You could try Roger Tiley. I do not know if he works exclusively in B/W but I have not seen any colour work by him.
He used to lecture in photography at Swansea College but I do not know where he may be at present. He has had several books published and is a professional. Plenty on him if you just search his name in google.
Regards,
John.

 

[Struan Gray]

Christ Chapman's work has a strong resonance with me:

http://www.chrischapmanphotography.com/

There is also lots of good B+W documentary work - including a fair bit of John Davies' photography - in the online archives of the Side Gallery in Newcastle:

http://www.amber-online.com/

Lots of leads there.

 

[pentaxuser]

Jarvman. Was just browsing the Ilford Harman site. Have a look at Photo Community Events. It mentions Dave Butcher who has done a couple of books in B&W landscapes and does a bit of teaching. It gives his e-mail and website where a number of shots are Wales. He's Derbyshire based and has an exhibition this week-end.

OK a long way to go from S Wales but judging from his site he seems a very approachable sort of guy whether it's an approach in person or via e-mail.

pentaxuser

 

[Bandicoot]

Mark Davey ocurred to me: works mostly in B&W, mostly in Wales. He uses an X-Pan for the majority of his personal work now. Also does stuff for the National Library in Aberystwyth, which presumably includes colour, I don't know.

His website is http://www.mrdgallery.com/about.php


Peter

 

[Jarvman]

I ended up speaking to George Jackson in the end. He was really helpful and wrote out a page long email reply even after the mother of all typos where I commended him on his 'craftsmanshit'

 

[johnnywalker]

 

[Ray Heath]

... It doesn't have to be somebody who works soley in black and white, just somebody who prolificly uses it. Our brief is "why do people still shoot black and white?".

a little confusing Jarv, soley (sic) working in B&W or not?

maybe you need to rethink the original brief

maybe people who make a living from photography don't use mono

maybe your on the wrong track

maybe people still use b&w because thet want to, not because thet make money from it

Ray

 

[catem]

What about Don McCullin - professional photojournalist and landscape photographer par excellence. I don't think he uses a computer in any shape or form. From hearing him speak I would say he is also a very accessible sort of person, if you wanted to ask him questions. Worth a try.