”Perhaps the wild landscapes of north Wales are just too beautiful for my aesthetic. However, I still take my camera in the hope that something will resonate".
The Art of Seeing #67: Benedict Brain finds that when it comes to capturing the essence of a location, some places are easier than others
How do you feel about the landscape, and how do you approach this through your photography? These are both interesting questions to ponder. Fujifilm GFX 50R with Fujfilm GF45mm F2.8 R WR. 1/125 sec at f/5.6, ISO 100(Image credit: Benedict Brain)
About Benedict Brain
(Image credit: Marcus Hawkins)
Benedict Brain is a UK-based photographer, journalist and artist. He is an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society and sits on the society’s Distinctions Advisory Panel. He is also a past editor of Digital Camera Magazine, and the author of You Will be Able to Take Great Photos by The End of This Book.
North Wales is one of my favorite places in the world – quite possibly my absolute favorite – and I’ve had the good fortune to visit many places. The wild mountains, mystical valleys and magical woodlands of Eryri hold an enduring allure that I find captivating. However, it’s an area that’s incredibly difficult to photograph.
More often than not, I simply go there to raise my spirits and nourish my soul. This isn’t as frustrating as it may sound – in many ways, this still feeds into my creative process, helping me grow as a photographer, even if I don’t come back with any photos.
I suspect part of the problem is that, as you will know if you’ve read some of my other columns, I’m not easily seduced by the traditional, classic way of making landscape pictures, so I avoid this approach. Perhaps the wild landscapes of north Wales are just too beautiful for my aesthetic. However, I still take my kit in the hope that something will resonate. Every once in a while, it does, and a scene conspires or unfolds in my favor.
With this image, taken in the gardens of Plas Brondanw, near Porthmadog, I feel as though I’m getting close to the essence, or at least my essence, of the area. The gardens were created by the great Welsh architect Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, who is perhaps best-known for the Italianate village of Portmeirion, which is nearby and also worth a visit if you’re in the area. This scene seems to capture how I feel about the region’s topography – as if the land is loaded with a mystical, almost surreal vibe, with a sentient entity lying dormant in the depths of the earth.
The recently trimmed hedge reveals a forest-like scene that alludes to the idea of another world that lies beneath, while the top half of the image, with the distant mountain tops and topiary bush, simply adds to the surreal vibe.
Benedict Brain is a UK based photographer, journalist and artist. He graduated with a degree in photography from the Derby School of Art in 1991 (now University of Derby), where he was tutored and inspired by photographers John Blakemore and Olivier Richon, amongst others. He is an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society and also sits on the society’s Distinctions Advisory Panel.
Until July 2018 Benedict was editor of Britain’s best-selling consumer photography magazine, Digital Camera Magazine. As a journalist he met and interviewed some of the world’s greatest photographers and produced articles on a wide range of photography related topics, presented technique videos, wrote in-depth features, curated and edited best-in-class content for a range of titles including; Amateur Photographer, PhotoPlus, N-Photo, Professional Photography and Practical Photoshop. He currently writes a regular column, The Art of Seeing, for Digital Camera magazine.
