Inspiration
There was just something with this detail from a beached log which reminded me of Piet Mondrian's strict geometric painting, like for example "Tableau I" and "Composition with Red, Yellow and Blue"
Detail of log found on Kvalvika beach, Lofoten Islands
Scratching for new ideas, I was looking through a book I have on Georgia O’Keeffe’s work. And the book had a few reproductions of her Cow’s Skull paintings. That made me think of this image from a couple of years back. The Cow’s Skull paintings are not new to me, but I don’t think I had them in mind at the time. The image would have been quite different if I had thought of them as I was photographing the skull.
In some way or another your work will be influenced by the sum of your experiences and what you are exposed to. All the tings you take a little time to explore, things you are intrigued by, things that spark your curiosity.
No matter what you do, chances are that what you are making an image of has been photographed before. You may have studied the work of well known photographers, or painters for that matter, and face the motive with a lot of references that may inspire you, or worse, intimidate you. So you are faced with the hard task of finding your interpretation of the scene in front of you. That can sometimes be rather difficult, but rewarding when you feel you have succeeded. (If you are familiar with the history of photography you may know which image this one is inspired by.)
This image is from the trip I made last summer together with the British photographer Steve Gosling and his wife. Great fun and great photography trip. The image is taken near Bakka, a small community along the fjord Nærøyfjorden. The fjord is a world heritage site, and it is lined by steep mountains, and this wedge shaped reflection which Steve drew my attention to, illustrates this quite well. (If you look under the menu item "Links" on the top right you will find links to Steves website and his online gallery at Exhibtr. If you are on a mobile device, look for the "menu" above the page title.)
Wayne Miller passed away in May this year, and in this portrait, "The World is Young" by Theo Rigby, Mr Miller talks about his life in photography.
“From the horrors of war to the complexities of childhood, Wayne Miller has captured intimate moments of life on film for over 50 years.”
