Minimalistic Seascapes
Is this fine art photography?
Hello, I’m Gill and I write a photography blog inspired by the landscapes of Suffolk and beyond. Please subscribe to read more of my writing and visit my website to view my images.
It is a grey and misty day as I leave the car in Covehithe village and follow the tarmac road to the sea. I pass St Andrews church; a small thatched building with a tall tower nestling inside the ruins of the original and much grander church. I continue past the last house in the village and navigate my way around some metal barriers placed in the road to prevent cars from travelling any further. A rather faded sign tells me that there is no access to the sea. The hedges enclose around me and the path narrows as I continue my journey. Suddenly and without warning the track stops and ahead of me lies the north sea with a steep drop to the beach below. I stand on the cliff edge and gaze out across a vast expanse of grey swirling water. Above the waves I can just make out the horizon through the mist. Back on land I have reached the end of the road.
From this point I can walk in either direction, both will eventually lead to the beach. In the past I have always turned left and walked across the fields to the sand at Benacre Broad. The footpath is continually shifting inland as the crumbling cliffs eat away at the field edge. Looking back towards the church I can feel the vulnerability that surrounds this place and wonder how much longer the building and its ancient ruins will tower over this landscape.
According to the area’s Shoreline Management Plan (SMP), Covehithe’s cliffs are eroding at a rate of 4.5 metres a year which means that the village and its church could disappear entirely by 2110.
Despite this, or perhaps because of this the area has become a popular place to visit and it can get very busy especially in the summer. However, this morning, in the misty greyness of a September day it is quiet and for that I am grateful.
I have come to Covehithe with another photograph and our plan is to walk to the right towards an area of beach that is situated below a small wood. This is an area I have never visited before so it will be a new experience for me. I have decided that I would like to take a more minimalistic approach to the session concentrating on the trees rather than the landscape and making them the focus of my photography.
Walking over sand and shingle and carrying heavy camera bags is hard going but eventually we arrive at an area of beach where the crumbling cliffs have deposited numerous trees, branches and roots along the tide line.
At first glance the scene is a chaotic one, bits of tree are scattered everywhere and I wonder how easy it will be to untangle the mess. Getting out my camera and filters I begin to take pictures.
Back home a day later I sit down to look at my images. I am interested to see if I have captured the minimalist look I was after.
During the shoot I had tried to make the wood the focus of my shots with the background taking second stage. To achieve this I took a series of long exposures focused on 4 or 5 main compositions and came up with the following images. The first is my favourite and I feel that I achieved most of what I wanted to do in camera with this shot.
The next shot I have worked on a little more extensively in post processing and I will walk you though my thought process by showing you a few versions of the same image.
This is my original image to which I have applied some basic edits.
I decided that this didn’t quite fit my minimal brief. I feel that the horizon is distracting as are the stones in the foreground so in the next image I have removed both in Photoshop.
I think this gives the image a more minimalistic feel. However I am not so keen on the lack of texture in the top half of the image, so next I blended in some clouds which I took on another photoshoot. I haven’t used the clouds to replace the sky I have just used them to add a little texture to an otherwise flat area of the image. I think the effect is subtle but to me it looks better.
Finally I tried a black and white version of this composition with a different aspect ratio for the crop.
I processed two other images from the shoot; one in black and white which was a long exposure and one in colour which shows all the texture in the water. For the black and white image I have produced two versions - one with the horizon and one without.
I love the colour image with all its texture and while I realise this is not a minimalistic shot I have included it as part of the overall shoot.
Altering images to this extent is not something that I usually do and I found the process fun to experiment with. I have seen a lot of this style of seascape photography on the internet portrayed as ‘fine art’ particularly images which create a calm aesthetic by using long exposure and removing the horizon.
A quick google search gives the definition of fine art photography as
artistic expression through photographs, transcending reality to evoke emotions and narratives.
I guess these images probably fit the description although I am in no hurry to ascribe the term ‘fine art’ to any of them. I am also not sure if I will make a habit of this style of photography. For me images should say something about the landscapes in which they were photographed and I am not sure these images do that. I find them aesthetically pleasing but a little lacking in substance.
Having said that I do feel I have learned a lot from this outing and I think there is something to be said for a more minimalistic approach which is all about simplicity in both colour tones and composition. Maybe for me the subject matter is the thing I am struggling with, and while I may not be quite there yet I have some ideas to take a more minimal style of photography forwards.
I would love to hear your opinion on my images, which ones you prefer and what you feel about the term ‘fine art photography’. Please feel free to comment below as it is always lovely to hear your thoughts.
Thank you very much for reading and until next week enjoy your photography.
Gill
Love these images l do like this style of photography, there is a guy called Gary Gough who has a YouTube channel and he has some great shots and tutorials on this subject. For me the B&W 16x9 is the one I like best.
These are such stunning images of Covehithe, you capture the place so well.