"I have a curious mind and I often find myself pondering the reasons why I'm drawn to the landscape. I wonder about the value of what I do and if it resonates with others in the same way as other photographic genres. If you think about impactful images, they create a meaningful narrative within a single frame, with the power to reframe public opinion, from climate change to conflict and famine.
Verity is a landscape and commercial photographer based in Birmingham, UK. She’s also an ambassador for Zeiss lenses, and a workshop leader with Light and Land. See more of Verity's work on her website.
"Photography is a powerful medium and it remains relevant. It’s how we document the world around us, but it plays on my mind that I’m just creating pretty pictures without purpose, the digital equivalent to painting the same scene repeatedly.
"There are inevitably epic moments experienced during a lifetime in pursuit of capturing the landscape and those moments can act as a talisman, a bright beacon pulsating at the back of my consciousness.
"I worry that chasing those moments ensures I fall into the trap of the lowest common denominator, creating work that has broad appeal yet lacks complexity.
"The question that poses itself often is, other than personal fulfilment, what is the point of landscape photography? In hundreds of years, what will be the legacy of this genre? I can't help but think that much of it will be lost to history, but inevitably, just like literary greats, images or collections will survive and become revered.
"The difference between a 'good' and 'great' photograph is when it becomes something bigger than the sum of its parts. More than just the composition, more than the conditions, but signalling to something beyond the image, pointing to the emotion and connection, a universal language of beauty.
"It's a moment in time, but it becomes representative of a larger timescale as history marches on. Consider the work of Ansel Adams and how his interpretations have essentially become timeless.
"Of course, these are ponderings that I would struggle to answer in this column, but by posing them here, and explaining my own thought processes, it helps me to understand the 'why' behind this photographic journey and I hope it makes you think too. The images we create deserve to have meaning and complexity, creating a dialogue, speaking a language that transcends culture and creates connection.
"So, I ask of myself, and of you too, what will be your photographic legacy?"
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