photography gallery
all images are copyright and unauthorised use is
prohibited.
permission for use must be obtained from the artist.
Please see on this page a selection of my
monochrome images, many of which formed the basis of a shared
exhibition in 2000 with Kevin Redpath and Ann Cook.
The images featured on the left comprise a set of
photographs chosen from past exhibitions.
A new selection will
occasionally be made in order for you to see a wider range of my work. Click on the pictures to show an enlarged
version together with a brief description.
photographic quality prints to order, signed and
dated.
Prints: All images
are printed as high resolution inkjet prints, actual size to the hand
printed originals, on A3+ semi-gloss, signed and discretely titled. Includes
poem tag. A4+ £11, A3+ £20 (+p&p).
Greetings cards
(approx 115mm x 164mm): with envelopes, at £2.20 each +p&p,
individually printed to a high standard on heavy watercolour paper.
Minimum Order: 5 cards. Each card features an intuitively or
‘channeled’ written poem unique to the image.
Guaranteed Cheques payable in UK pounds sterling.
I will email you to confirm your order including total amount due with
postage, then proceed with order on receipt of full payment.
bernard chandler - photographs
(An edited version of my
introductory piece for the Glastonbury 2000 exhibition)
When I was six I experienced the wonders of the
photographic darkroom for the first time, by my father. His enthusiasm
encouraged my own. Work by such artists as Ansel
Adams, Fay
Godwin, John
Blakemore, Eliot
Porter, Paul
Strand, Edward
Weston and others have inspired me to
push the quality of my prints to the best of my current ability. This
is not an end in itself - the craft demands it - but a reflection of
the ‘respect of place’ I have for the subject, where I
‘get myself out of the way’ of the environment and be
still, aware of that moment the subject tells me to press the shutter.
I am drawn to the natural world, the blend of nature and the hand of
man, and the ‘quiet space’ which is that balance of
objectivity and intuition. The point of balance between the worlds of
spirit and matter. Awareness of this is the unseen ingredient of my
photographs. In a sense ‘composition’ is an intellectual
construction which can seriously jeopardise the integrity of the
emotional moment (although there is always subconcious/intuitive
selection of visual space). Photography for me is a meditative process
that continues in the darkroom; it is the path of return that brings me
to that original moment of awareness of the spirit of place:
photography not only ‘drawing with light’ but drawing with
time, memory and oneness; creating work in which the poise, balance,
and quietness can permeate the senses of both myself and the viewer.
All my prints in this gallery were originally monochrome, hand printed
in the traditional way, some with warm tone developer. All the pictures
were shot on 35mm using an old Yashica FR camera (except one: this was
taken on 120 film with a £7 plastic ‘Lubitel’ twin
lens reflex - the best cameras in the world are our own eyes!)
Technical wizardry alone does not make a good photograph! Our own
honest vision and passion is what feeds the need to produce an image
that communicates. I believe the process of achieving a meaningful
image is as important as the end result. The very personal relationship
with the image in the darkroom is unique.
photography - spirit and the shutter
(added after the Glastonbury exhibition to
complement the above intro)
sometimes, when a
quiet space embraces me, I see in a different way - my sensitivities
are awakened from semi-dormancy and flower into bright acknowledgement,
greeting the intangible and unseen. It is not something I consciously
seek to do because it is the ‘out there’ that initiates the
resonance that my spirit recognises. Does this seem pretentious and
grand? I don’t really care - sometimes the simplest thoughts
encompass the ‘bigger picture’. These are deep feelings
that have only recently established themselves into conscious form, and
are being written for the first time. My motivation and vision is not
concerned with ‘creating a picture’ but an emotional
equivalent of what I see and feel within a subject. Something invisible
moves me to see beyond the camera and into the subject. In the taking
is the giving - a creative process as a return journey to reveal the
invisible as the visible. What is a photograph? An image of a moment of
time: light fixed by chemistry. Suspended animation until I print the
negative and wake it up! When a print is made, does the past reach
through to me or do I travel back in time? Does ‘it’ reveal
itself to me or vice versa? Poise, balance; silence of the moment.
Although many of my prints are of spiritual places and nature, there is
no reason not to be in an ordinary everyday place that makes me stop -
I am photographing Spirit: it lives in all things. What I see and feel
in my own vision is a snapshot of the divine revealed. I don’t
seek it out - that would impose myself on what I see. It would then be
the artificiality of choice, but here is the paradox: One does have to
choose, but what guides me to select this over that? The encounter that
reveals more than the surface is symbiotic; both our spirits recognise
each other because we are ultimately from the same source that unites
us all. With the privilege of the unseen asking me to stop and look
within comes the responsibility of ‘returning’ that impulse
to the world, to make visible what was felt within and it is thus
essential to maintain as high a quality as I can in my prints - the
traditional ‘fine print’: appropriate tonal range,
sharpness of focus and no superficial trickery, except to use
techniques that enhance the process of ‘returning’ - the
integrity of this process, from resonating with the subject to display
of the finished print is absolutely vital. Recognising tricks and
technique rather than the inner power and honesty of the image dilutes
that which lies within. These thoughts have come to me during the
preparation of my exhibition. A true creative process has got under way
within me and it will not let me go.
“I was a hidden jewel and loved to be known,
so I created the world that I might be known.”
postscript
I now realise that this attitude and approach to
photography need not be lost when partaking of the digital process. By
scanning my original negatives at high resolution I can use this basic
information to tonally adjust the image with controls, equivalent to
those in the darkroom. Intention and integrity of the image making
process is essential. A digital print cannot simulate the traditional
wet print: we must see the final result in its own terms, as a valid
part of the creative process in its own right, so that the craft of
picture making is as important in front of a computer monitor as in the
traditional darkroom.
