Following Julian Kingma’s insightful session on portrait photography, we are delighted to announce the next instalment in our online event series; Navigating the landscape with Peter Eastway.
Join us on Wednesday, 18 May at 12.30pm (Sydney time) to get professional advice from an internationally renowned Landscape photographer.
Peter Eastway has worked across the globe capturing the world’s natural wonders, from Antarctica to the Great Barrier Reef. Peter has produced editorial photography for Better Photography, Lonely Planet, Qantas and Apple TV.
Additionally, Peter was a featured photographer in the Tales by Light television series aired on the National Geographic Channel and produced in partnership with Canon Australia. It can currently be viewed on Netflix.
Image credit: Peter Eastway
While landscape imagery may seem like one of the most ‘objective’ genres of photography, how we choose to present the world around us is a highly personal and instinctual performance. Furthermore, outside variables significantly impact landscape photographs. As Peter writes:
“I approach landscape photography in several ways, depending on the client and the outcome… If I am making a print for eventual sale, my approach is crass and commercial – I am shooting to impress someone. When working personally, the only person I have to satisfy is me. The best situation is when a client asks me to produce personal work, but this is relatively rare. Clients usually have an opinion, especially when they are paying.”
Image Credit: Peter Eastway
Peter is frank about what it takes to be a landscape photographer:
“My question for people considering life as a professional landscape photographer is, do you want to make photos that please other people? The difference in attitude and approach is immense. And will you risk changing a passion into a chore? The business of landscape photography is challenging, even more so when your competitors work in an economy based on ‘likes’ and fame. Their photography is often given away for a return that can never provide a financial solution.”
Image credit: Peter Eastway
Peter’s success in the industry is partly due to his unique eye for creating indelible landscape imagery. His expansive photographs are captured in such striking clarity and detail that they take on an almost hyper-real or uncanny quality. The eye is drawn to his images repeatedly, attempting to understand how something so unreal could be real.
Peter magnifies the tension between the real and unreal through his clever use of post-production (Photoshop) technologies. Peter has become a master of sharpening details and heightening effects – a controversial process that Peter loves to discuss;
“Choosing how to present landscape photography depends very much on context. A lot of my work is heavily interpreted during post-production, a process I greatly enjoy. While I choose this for my personal exhibitions, I would not offer an image created this way to a Geographic magazine, for example, where ‘reality’ is an expectation. On the other hand, if people believe what they see on Facebook or advertising, that’s their choice. Storytelling in landscape photography can be seen as one big fib, even by photographers who claim to be ‘honest’, simply by pointing the camera the other way or cropping the image. It’s a fun conversation to have!”
Keep the conversation going in Navigating the landscape with Peter Eastway on Wednesday, 18 May at 12.30m (Sydney Time).
This session is supported by Sony Australia and Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) Fund – an Australian Government initiative.
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