Joe Cornish Quotation

[Mike Farley]

I have just come across this quotation by Joe Cornish, the well known and highly regarded photographer. It comes from the newly published book "Masters of Landscape Photography" and struck such a chord with me that I had to share it here before I did anything else, including those tasks which really should have a higher priority. It does not apply just to the landscape genre, but any scene where we choose to make an image. And beyond photography, the sentiments expressed are equally valid to other aspects of life.

“No place is a photographic cliché. The only clichés are the overused, mindless and derivative approaches used in making pictures of these places… Photography’s problem is that it is both descriptive and easy, and apparently sophisticated appearances can be achieved effortlessly, especially with a phone camera and apps. I believe in individual seeing, the possibility of a relationship with the landscape, and the unique circumstances and conditions of each encounter. However familiar a place, it is possible to retain a certain innocence, so that each time we see it anew.”