“Landscape photography is built on three foundations: Timing, Lighting and Composition – TLC” says Joe Cornish in the first chapter, and in the remainder of this excellent book he elaborates beautifully on this apparently simple point.
But at the same time he goes a good deal deeper. While it may be tempting to simply browse through the photographs, it is well worth reading the introductory essays for each of the seven chapters, which reveal the intellectual basis of his work as well as his technical approach.
Natural Landscapes
He often refers to the spiritual nature of landscape photography and the important role that photographers have played in communicating to a wider audience a sense of the value, uniqueness and fragility of natural landscapes.
The changing, dynamic nature of landscapes is another recurring theme. Cornish refers to his reluctance to comply with frequent requests for “tranquil” shots which imply that the landscape is “a passive, changeless, gentle place”. Instead he sees and seeks to present it as in perpetual change: “still photography need not be static”.
The main body of the book is a highly personal description of how Cornish set about capturing each of the 63 main images, together with notes on a similar but, for him, inferior shot. The discussion is tactical rather then technical: how he identified the shot, considered alternatives and, crucially, waited, often a long time, for the right moment with the tide at the right level and the sun at the right angle, revealed for a few minutes by passing clouds.
Coastal Landscape Photographs
Joe Cornish is probably best known for his coastal work, of which the book includes several fine examples. His prominent foreground features and wide depth of field mark a distinctive and influential style, usually in a portrait or square frame which he believes helps convey “a sense of energy and movement.”
But the book includes an impressive variety of non-coastal material, from rock formations in Arizona and Nevada to a cemetery in Paris, a detail of sea-shells on a Tasmanian beach and an almost macro view of cactus plants in a Spanish botanical garden.
Inspirational Landscape Photographers
Except for where he dedicates nine pictures to various inspirational friends and heroes (“The world is a better place for their images and the wilderness they helped preserve”), there is not much logic to how the photographs are divided among the chapters.
Chapter 4, the Point of Return, eloquently makes the case for working with familiar landscapes near home, while the following pages include shots in Utah, Paris, Scotland and Cornwall, all far from his base in North Yorkshire. Not that it matters, the pictures are wonderful anyway, and North Yorkshire is well represented elsewhere in the book.
The book is more descriptive and inspirational than a “master class” or an instruction manual. Technical parameters for each photograph are included with thumbnails in a separate section towards the back, which keeps the focus on his overall approach and philosophy rather than technical details.
Equipment for Landscape Photography
But the end sections on equipment and the technical details of each shot provide valuable practical information and make it far more than a coffee table book for casual browsing. There is enough technical information to remove any mystery as to how each shot was achieved, and to guide aspiring photographers.
This was Joe Cornish’s first book, published in 2002 and therefore before digital photography had matured enough for serious landscape work. Nevertheless its inspirational nature transcends any question of a “digital divide”, and demand for several rounds of printing are evidence of its continuing relevance.
First Light is an excellent book, well worth keeping close to hand as a source of inspiration and renewed enthusiasm for capturing and recapturing the beauty of a landscape near you.
First Light: A Landscape Photographer’s Art, by Joe Cornish
Argentum, 2002, 160 pp, 63 main images, ISBN 1 902538 24 2, £16.25 / $35.50 at Amazon
