Tim Phillips – Exhibition Statement

The Book Project Tim went on last year required images taken at the beginning of the course in the SW corner of the Gower coast in S Wales.  The beaches visited were very grey and Tim looked for shapes and as much colour as possible.  In nature, there is very much more colour around than is apparent at the first casual look.  Beaches are a real treasure chest of graphic potential.  None of these images (not all taken in Wales) have received much in the way of post-production treatment. 

CV - Tim Phillips (b. 1947)

After a lifetime as a sole-practitioner architect both in Portugal and London, Tim is taking life a little easier in East Devon.  Photography, ever since school days, has always been a hobby of his (first camera was a black bakelite Kodak Cresta!).  Taking and recording the image has always been the most important part of picture taking, though burning, dodging and refreshing tired B & W images in the darkroom often rescued a disappointment!  In this, it was helpful studying architecture at Canterbury College of Art;  interestingly, the best critics of photographs are usually artists.

Now, Tim is more convinced than ever that a successful image is one that grabs  attention immediately for being more than just the photograph you see; something that needs a lot of patience with landscapes, which are currently his preference.

With so many other distractions in life, Tim prefers to limit image adjustment to a minor crop and an adjustment of 'levels', if needed, to minimize time spent on the computer.  Tim uses both Photo Elements 6 on a laptop and iPhoto on an Intel MacBook.  The latter software is improving all the time and Tim finds it allows nearly all the tweaks he needs and is quicker to use, particularly the straightening tool.  Currently, Tim is using a Nikon D40X and apart from the non-VR zooms that came in the kit, there's also a Nikon 28mm PC lens (from film days) and a 10-20 Sigma zoom in the bag.  For printing, Tim is a dedicated Epson aficionado and I've just upgraded to an R2400, which allows extra long sheets for big panoramic prints, something he is just getting into! Working with a tripod is much more satisfying than grabbing a hand held shot, more so because you have the best chance of capturing what you see, digital sensor range excepted!

The other issue that bothers him about the photographic digital age is what to do with the thousands of images that you end up with!  Investigating one possibility, Tim went on a Light and Land Book Project Course;  the influence of this course is partly responsible for the type of image displayed here...