Film, forest and features

This exhibition by Norman Thomson explores the relationship between photographer and the natural environment.

"We live in a photographic digital age, where we can shoot loads of images on our digital cameras or phones, in the hope that one or two come out well. In doing so, do we really 'look and enjoy' our surroundings, or are we too taken up with constantly clicking?

"I am as guilty as the next person when I use my digital camera; I shoot far too many frames of the same subject. When I get back to my computer and look through the pictures, I often feel that I missed the greatness and natural beauty of the environment because I was constantly firing the shutter. I wanted to redress the balance, which is why I decided to challenge myself.

"Film, Forest and Features was indeed challenging. I set out with my 35mm film camera and one single roll of film. The Boathouse Wood is a forest near my home, and I spent a whole day wandering around, looking at shapes, exploring and discovering, but mostly, enjoying the forest.

"The winter light was wonderful and the lack of foliage on the trees enabled me to see shapes, form and patterns. It was these that intrigued me most about this exercise. I hadn't really appreciated how many different shapes there are within a forest, and how shooting at this time of year could be significantly different than during the summer months."

From the roll of 35mm film, we selected a few images for the exhibition. As always with Norman’s work, there is a distinct fine art feel to most of the images.