What is a photograph? Does it exist beyond our own experiential perspective? For me, looking back on the insane year of 2020, the devastating pandemic and the hardship it caused so many people, I think of each of these 12 moments of time. For me, that few seconds fully engaged, distanced and removed from the rest of the world has been necessary, allowing me to keep focussed on what is important in my life; health, family, empathy.
I could have selected any number of alternative images, and these 12 are somewhat arbitrary. One thing they all share is that they were photographed in Scotland, mostly very close to our home on the west coast. There is no sky, very little dramatic light, and very little post-processing. I’m not looking for a scout badge in morality for those things, but they matter to me.
Art mirrors our life, and our aesthetic output reflects on us as people. I believe authenticity, honesty, morality and integrity are important attributes. They are my own, rather than indoctrinated in me. In the small hours before dawn when I wake and lie in bed, I need to like myself, trust I am true to the child I was; the dreamer, the idealist, the believer in truth.
2020 was a challenging year for us. All our Expressive Photography workshops were cancelled (the right thing to do) and we subsequently scrubbed our whole years income off the board by March. This involved a strong determination to survive and we restructured the business into an online model focussed on education. The YouTube Channel has growth and we are grateful for a loyal and enthusiastic viewership.
2021 is another exciting prospect and we are really looking forward to growing the online model further, at the same time as reintroducing physical workshops when it is safe to do so. We are bringing into the business a number of other landscape photographers who will also be teaching the Expressive Photography Method, which we look forward to bringing to you early in the New Year.
Thanks for all the support this year. Ann Kristin and myself wish you a safe and peaceful holiday season wherever you may be.
Thanks Alister, love your 12. 2020 has been quite the year but a jewel for me was finding your site. Your images and narrative make me yearn for my Scottish ancestral roots. Looking forward to 2021. Best of the season to you and yours.
I join Tom in saying that these lovely abstracts can reflect a bleak year, but at the same time they speak to me of hope: hope and confidence in the enduring beauty of the natural world. Similar evidence is found right now after the rains that fell over the country devastated by last summer’s bushfires in Australia. Best wishes from Down Under to Alister and Ann Kristin and that you enter2021 with hope and confidence. We watch from afar with dismay at today’s news of the progress in UK at defeating that virus.
Very intriguing set of images. I found it interesting that not one of them is what people tend to think of as a “landscape” image. There is nothing wrong with that as I feel that it is an appropriate set of somewhat abstract images that reflects, to some extent, the rather abstract nature of the past year. I think that as people might look at an image and ask “What is that?”, these images are an appropriate representation of a year where a lot of people, including myself. are looking at it in retrospect and asking ourselves “What was that – what happened? Thank you for sharing your insight into the world with the rest of us. Best wishes to you and yours for Christmas and the upcoming year.
Beautiful photos Alister. I enjoyed watching all your vlogs. I particularly enjoyed the interviews in Vision and light. Have a peaceful holiday and be safe. Looking forward to follow your content for 2021.
Lovely photographs Alister, I wouldn’t say bleak but they are very 2020 and I think in time you’ll look at these and they’ll take you right back to this time. Lovely abstracts that act as a mirror to my feelings right now, good art does that each image asks you stop, stand still and ask questions – I love that.
Wishing you both as good a Christmas as is possible this year and the very best wishes for the new year too.
Absolutely, that’s a very astute observation. I am very much driven by emotions and believe that if we shoot innately then the results somehow demonstrate our inner state. Thanks for the kind wishes, Ann Kristin and I wish you the same.