What do you feel when you see an image? Photographer Gerard Murphy talks about his latest exhibition.
An unwanted Christmas present turned into a self-taught passion for photographer Gerard Murphy. The 57-year-old, who was raised in Northumberland, is currently hosting an exhibition at Corgarff Community Hall where the exhibition is in its 5th year and is ever changing.
How did you first get into photography?
I first got into photography while living in Utah in the states when I bought an unwanted Christmas present from a friend, an Olympus OM10. For the most part photography was a hobby. Ski-ing was my passion and my profession.
I did over 30 ski seasons in the States, Continental Europe, Scotland and New Zealand. Between the ski seasons of the northern and southern hemispheres I would go travelling and indulge in my hobby, setting myself projects such as fishermen, shepherds, or women of the Himalaya. Last year at Corgarff Hall I had a different theme every month to show these pictures. For the last 5 years, photography has been my profession.
You have taught yourself about photography?
I am completely self taught in my photography. I like to capture abstract in the landscape as well as the landscape. When I travel I like to capture street scenes and people in the landscape.
Is there anything in particular which inspires you?
My work is so eclectic that I can not say what inspires it. If I see something that gives me joy or I see something that is going to happen, then the challenge of capturing that scene and producing an image that pleases me is my inspiration.
Tell me about the background behind your current exhibition?
The exhibition is now in its fifth year and its fourth at the hall. In my first year or so I showed pictures from China, Vietnam and India, along with images from Glen Strathfarrar where I had the great fortune to live for four years.
Apart from that I exhibited images of snow from within ski areas where I was compelled to work to pay for my travel and my film. I could do an exhibition entirely of sastrugi and riming for the snow enthusiasts. As for my current exhibition I have tried to keep it local with images from what I think are iconic places of Donside and Deeside.
How long have you been working on this particular exhibition?
It is hard for me to say how long I have been working on ‘it’ as I am always working with no particular objective and hopefully, organically, a body of work comes together with some images maybe taken some time ago but fitting into a theme of current images.
What locations did you decide to photograph and why?
The photographs that I exhibit this year are local to me in the upper reaches of the Don and Dee valley. They are places where I walk with my lovely lady and our dogs and so I decided to go back a few times to photograph them. They are places that I recommend to visitors, to go for a walk in our great countryside.
What is your favourite image which you have created?
I really do not have a favourite image but I do have three that gave me great pleasure in taking. The first was of a great boulder (250 tons of boulder) balanced precariously on a rock slope in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. I was trying to capture the texture of the rock, the shadow, and building monsoon clouds when a goat desperate for shade walked onto the skyline and looked at me.
This was in my film days and so it was months before I got home and processed the film to see the result. The second is of a Highland Pony and pony-man with a shot stag on the back of the pony descending to Loch Monar in Glen Strathfarrar on a very, very dreich day. I too was leading a weary, hungry pony as I saw this scene develop (no pun intended) and tried to get my camera ready all the while the impatient pony beside me nudging my elbow to get a move on, I was very happy with the outcome especially as it was so dark and wet.
The third image is of an elderly man walking towards the shade of a tree in autumnal colours in the mountainous desert region of Ladack in the north west Indian state of Jammu & Kashmir. I had been making pictures over some days of these trees in their autumnal shade set along mountainous rivers and valleys when as I was riding my motorbike, a Royal Enfield Bullet 350, along a track with a raging river beside and below me I spotted this elderly man walking along a track on the opposite side of the valley.
I stopped and made a few pictures of him with the sheer drop down to the white water below, trying to get some scale of him in his setting. I packed the camera and everything away on the bike and rode on a hundred meter or so before seeing this lone tree. I knew what I wanted, and where I wanted him to be in the image and, I wanted his stick stretched out. So that made me very happy also.
How long does it take to create an image, including editing it?
You know, in film days I would make an image, perhaps two maybe three but, it was expensive. So you saw it and you took it with no review. Nowadays with digital, pixels are free and so we all take far too many and ditch the dross to find the one.
Well, I believe that generally it is the first couple of images that I keep and the rest I ditch. The reason I think this is so, is that I see the image in the instant and all the rest are just faffing about enjoying myself, trying different focal lengths, exposures and lenses or filters.
As for editing, the best results in camera require the least amount of editing, but, they need editing and processing and the least amount of time doing that the better for me. I have just bought an old film camera which I am excited to get out and about with this winter when I figure out how to use it!
The exhibition is open until the end of September, seven days a week from 10am-5pm, See www.gerardmurphy.co.uk
