Picture/Story

Up at 5am on a still April morning to capture this moment of peace and tranquility in the Bosham Creek. I walked along Shore Road and sat on an old wooden jetty for an hour waiting for the light to strengthen. Bosham can feel a very spiritual place at first light, and a calmness came over me that I have never experienced before.

Over the years Charlie Waite has become famous for his iconic studies of avenues of trees, which satisfies his deep sense of order, and provides pleasure in repetition and the aesthetics of arcs and diagonals. In this article we read the story behind Lucca, Tuscany, Italy 1990 and hear how he finds the opportunity to photograph a corridor or cloister just as irresistable as an avenue of trees.

Charlie Waite tells the story behind one of his popular works from Cantabria, made during a book project on Spain in 1990, and shares the despair of waiting patiently through prolonged periods of rain, and the photographic ecstasy of capturing this very special image in a brief moment of flat lighting with no direct sunlight at all.

Charlie Waite's love affair with trees dates back 40 years and in this piece we hear from the artist about his relationship with a dear tree in the West Country that he has photographed for more than 25 years, and remains very close to his heart.

We are delighted to introduce a stunning new photograph by Charlie Waite titled Mere Study 4, Wiltshire, England 2021 which will feature in a forthcoming documentary 'My Greatest Shot', filmed by Sky Arts and expected to be published this autumn or early 2022.

Michael Kenna has travelled the world to create his distinct black and white images of unpopulated landscapes. It was in the mid-1980s that Kenna first began to visit Japan and became influenced by an Asian sense of aesthetics. In 2002 he started his love affair with the northern island of Hokkaido where his compositions became increasingly minimalistic and abstract, free from extraneous sensory information. In the following interview extract we hear the story behind his iconic photograph Tree Portrait, Study 1, Wakoto, Hokkaido, Japan 2002 which appeared as the cover of his Retrospective Two book, published by Nazraeli Press in 2004.

He is one of the most celebrated landscape photographers in the world and art critics have described Charlie Waite's instantly recognisable prints as 'rare perfections of light, colour and composition which offer the viewer a luxuriant portrait of a planet at peace and one where mankind and his activities are in harmony with his surroundings'. But did you know what a charming and eloquent writer Waite is too? Here we enjoy the story behind one of Waite's more unusual photographs within his archive, East of Gibraltar, Spain, 2017, and his clever use of a limited colour palette. 'I acquired an early edition for my own collection and have loved living with this stunning print in my hallway at home. I adore this sea blue!' Luke Whitaker.  BUY