Philip Norton
I have always been fascinated by technology - from when I was first allowed to used my mother's Folding Brownie, up to the latest digital SLR. However, as a left brained person, the artistic side of photography has not come naturally.
Digital cameras allowed me to experiment and learn, so I signed up for an online photography school and spent many hours not just learning the technicality but also the composition and art of photography. To learn the artistry behind landscapes I studied the great romantic landscape painters, especially John Constable whose love of clouds has affirmed mine.
Much advice to budding photographers centres on finding your style, your subject, what makes you unique. I have never been able to do that. I photograph what interests me - be it portraits, landscapes, street scenes or close-up macro subjects.
My inspiration ranges from observing a mood or uniqueness, to just plain beauty and awe. The challenge then is to reproduce on the computer not what my eyes saw, but what my heart saw. My photographs represent what I felt upon being confronted with the subject. Sometimes that results in naturalism, other times romanticism or an abstract interpretation.
I believe it is not enough to just take ‘nice’ photos. My deeper aim is always to be able to accurately reflect my vision on paper. After being subjected to many years of cheap inferior prints that fade after a few years, I discovered a printing process that is archival when combined with fine art, called ‘glicée’ paper. The wonderful textures and feel of fine art paper adds another dimension to photography, which I think should be every photographer's ultimate aim.
In presenting this collection, I invite you to step into my world, and hope you too are inspired to notice the beauty within the small moments and seemingly mundane.