Forms of winter

Photographers are often advised to focus exclusively on one or two types of photography to enable them to brand themselves and become known for a particular style. Many successful photographers specialize in weddings or babies or pets or flowers or wildlife or abstracts or trains or… the list goes on.

I struggle with this advice. I had been thinking I would focus on street photography. As well as an occasional portrait. And I also love landscapes. And here are a few black-and-white nature images I have made recently, which are a whole different style again. So never mind the categories – I am going to follow my photographic muse wherever she leads!

Today’s images were inspired by Forms of Japan by Michael Kenna, a recent addition to my growing library of photobooks. In this collection, his meditative and mostly snowy images are accompanied by Haiku and quotes from a range of Japanese writers. The book arrived in the mail the day after I had signed up for a photo tour of Japan. This was in July.

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Many of the images in his book are minimalist nature scenes. I admire Kenna’s work so I decided to try to emulate his style. Although most of my photos are made in an urban setting, I love nature and the challenge of finding an interesting composition using natural forms. And snow makes minimalist compositions much easier.

And, oh yes, Japan. I leave early on Sunday morning, Feb 10, and I will be in Japan for 10 days. I am excited and also a bit nervous to be going on this trip, but, mostly, I can hardly wait! My next blog post will be about what I expect to see and what I will be taking with me, so stay tuned.

I have no expectation that the Japan I see will look anything like Kenna’s photos, especially as we will see more cities than countryside. However, we will be in a mountainous area for a day or two, and I am told there will be snow, so I maybe I can find my own forms of Japan.

A gallery of images is below. Click on the thumbnails to see them in a larger size.