Capturing the landscape in light and dark

Wales' weather is a vital part of photographer Nigel Forster's photographic toolkit, as he explains to Jenny White

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USING golden light, volcanic blacks and fiery clouds, Nigel Forster's astonishing photograph of Pen Y Fan in the snow embodies his unique photographic style, in which contrasts of light, dark and colour conjure nature at its most electrifying.

A landscape photographer based in Bannau Brycheiniog, he worked with publisher Graffeg to create his new book, simply titled Wales|Cymru, which captures the essence of the Welsh landscape - rather than predictable shots of well-known landmarks.

Iconic locations are in there - the Severn Bridge, Tenby harbour, Port Talbot steelworks, and the wreck of the Helvetia at Rhossili beach, for example - but so are less obvious or specific points on the map, from mountain crags to the softer green curves of Monmouthshire.

This is a key difference between his work and that of many landscape photographers, in that he digs deeper than most, conjuring not just superficial visuals but also the emotional and elemental experience of being in a place.

Orange Tree, Llanberis Quarry, on page 149 of the book, is a case in point. It’s a painterly piece depicting nothing that would qualify as a landmark: simply an autumnal tree ablaze against gunmetal slate. Yet the textural greys and painterly orange smudges say as much, if not more, about being outside in Wales than your average sightseer’s image.

As he puts it, “This photo is an effective landscape, but it’s not a particular location that anyone would recognise. It’s a tree on a slate background, and that’s more my kind of picture, as it purely relies on the texture of the slate and the colour of the tree.”

In the book as a whole, he wanted to show the diversity of different types of landscapes in Wales.