Grant Simon Rogers

@gsr64.bsky.social

219 Followers 161 Following

Gallery Photographer, Educator and obsessive draughtsman.

Photo Synthesis For the Sun & Other Deities Treptower Park 12435 Berlin #LeicaCamera ƒ/16 @1/2000 ISO:100 Daylight & Flash (on, fired) This is a picture I made last June. A day of nightingales and thunderstorms. Not the easiest of images for Instagram either but I don’t make them for this platform, merely share them. This platform has in the past given me pleasure and to look at your works in return, gives me an immense amount of pleasure. Not so interested in selfies, shoes, holidays (jealous of course despite the carbon footprint) but I am interested in any picture or reel of kittens, cats or dogs, falling over, off or into things. Thats what instagram is really for. - That said, I love it when it all falls into place. These pictures were easy. This picture was easy. It just fell into my lens. I made a lit jig on the inside after I had made this. It’s not merely bucolic, it has a lot of visual interest and textural complexities. I have been loving thinking in monochrome recently. I go through phases. Every picture tells a story. It means something completely different to each and every viewer but we all start from the same place. - Slow burners are long burners. I can live with this image. It is A Printer - Stay safe. Stay creative. - Alles liebe aus dem Baumhaus
A PhotoSynthesis: For the Sun & Other Deities Marche Pour la Cerémonie des Turcs #LeicaCamera ƒ/16 @1/2000 ISO:100 Daylight & Flash (on, fired) Treptower Park 12435 Berlin - Plants are interwoven into the day to day of our lives. They are a source of food. An integral part of the Bio Diversity of our shared environment. A source for poets and chemists. They are part of our history of colour. They are mediative, symbolic. For artists they provide subject and pigment. Like a photograph, plants rely on light for their existence. The link between the two is for me, profound. Many of the plants around us are refugee species from other parts of the world. - I am not one for sharing pictures with music. I think it influences the viewer far too much and the "finished" image will change with our moods and feelings towards it. Music will anchor it, which for me, is like a padlock on a fence to symbolise love. In this particular case I instantly heard a piece of music in my head. I was laughing as I made this photo. I hummed the tune all of the way home. I am still humming it now. Marche Pour la Cerémonie des Turcs 1670 Born. Giovanni Battista Lulli. Florence 1632 - Died Jean-Baptiste Lully. Paris. 1687
Seasoning - Tempelhofer Feld 10965 Berlin Germany - A low viewpoint through wind blown grass. The foreground grass is out of focus as the lens depth of field comes into play in the overall composition. It was a good day. Today I sat in the grass, in my shorts and got a rash and this picture. I listened to the wind through this grass. I like the word Susurrus, that can be used to describe this sound. The wind was gusting. “Blowing a Hooley” also has a poetic tone to it. A different type of tone to susurrus but it makes me smile too. I listened to the skylarks overhead. I listened to the faint noise of traffic, just distant enough. In between the gusts, I could here insects, grasshoppers, bees, flies. I listened to boom box techno a dog walker shared with the world as they walked by. Monday 23 Jun at about 13.30, it was very windy on Tempelhofer Feld. It is now a Monday I will never forget because I made this picture of it. - Thank you for reading. Be safe. - ALLES LIEBE AUS DEM BAUMHAUS
Beer Gardeners' Question Time
 #leicacamera ƒ/16 @1/2000 ISO:100 Daylight & Flash (off camera) Trousers: BBC Home Service/9 April 1947/22.15(pm) Attitude: Sowerbutts, Loads, Clark and Sansome. Pink and purple peonies photographed from the side and slightly below. This is an intentionally underexposed picture that is relit with a flash held off camera to the left of the subject. The sky beyond is over cast with heavy rain clouds with the merest hint of the blue sky beyond the clouds. The title is aimed at my British viewer, I think I have at least one, will know of Gardeners’ Question Time? This is a BBC Radio staple since 1947, when the BBC first broadcast it on what was then known as The Home Service. Gardeners’ Question Time was a development of a war time, Ministry to Information public campaign known as Dig For Victory. BBCR4s Gardeners’ Question Time is not to be confused with Question Time on the same channel. A very similar format, where elected and or populist political figures are invited to share their thoughts on questions submitted by listeners (and viewers). Tens of thousands of listeners form the weekly audience for Gardeners’ Question Time submitting their questions on all aspects of their gardening needs to a panel of experts. They receive, thoughtful, helpful and inspirational advice from the panelists. This is where Gardeners’ Question Time & Question Time diverge somewhat. I still listen to an episode from time to time. 

I come from a family of gardeners. They are partly my inspiration for these works. All of my Grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, parents, sister had or have a profound love of their gardens. It is in the blood. It is the summer and every time I visit a beer garden, I think of this R4 classic. I live on the third floor of a 1904 apartment block. I have a small balcony. Berlins parks and gardens are my studio.
Title: Book of the Seven Seas Camera Data: ƒ/16 @1/2000 ISO:100 Daylight & Flash (on, fired) A photograph of summer grass being blown in the coastal wind on the Baltic coast of Denmark. The foreground composition is full of very delicate summers grass that has a web like quality as my flash illuminates it. The tree at the back of the compositions is seen this time in whole. It is not cut off at the top or bottom. The picture is taken directly into the direction of the sun. The rolling cumulus clouds are grey with a distinct silver lining. August 2024 for the first time in what has felt like years, I had a summer holiday. I cannot jump on an aircraft without thinking of the negative impact on our environment so this was a trip by train, ferry and coach. I can’t turn off what I know to suit my own ends. A Beach holiday has to very close to home or at the very least, a train ride away. This picture is made on the reverse, or the landward side of sand dunes on the Danish baltic coast. In my opinion (which I will change) these are the best pictures I made last year. The most original for me, anyway. Over the last decade, these flora portraits have become my passion and delight. These photographs are all day time, with virtually no post processing. I make them in the camera. When I look back at my pictures I always struck by what I would have missed if I wasn’t looking. That is one of the gifts of photography for me. collectors editions are available on enquiry. Alles liebe aus dem BaumHaus
Wind Blowing From Left to Right Blowing Through Cherry Blossom. Schmeterlingfeld, is a tiny space of green to encourage biodiversity along the side of the Landwehr Canal, Berlin. On this space, smaller than half a tennis court are three juvenile cherry trees. They are always a treat to see and photograph. Every year this mini Sakura is a magnet for me. It is in itself worth the effort but it is on the exact location of a memorable scene from Wim Wenders’ Der Himmel über Berlin (Wings of Desire), 1987. That’s enough for me. Good times - Over the last decade, these flora portraits have become my passion and delight. I simply love making them. When I look back at my pictures I always struck by what I would have missed if I wasn’t looking. - What I would like any viewer to understand about my photography is the following. * I make 90% of my work in Berlin Green Spaces. This topographical landscape has memory. It tells stories. I am a storyteller. * I prefer to work "in camera" so there is minimal post processing on my pictures. These pictures are straight out of the camera. * They are all daytime pictures, underexposed to appear dark and relit with an off camera flash. * Influenced consciously by 15th to 18th century European Painting but unconsciously, just about everything else. * I am clearly stating, "Look what I would have missed if I wasn't looking" which feels one hundred times more authentic than the somewhat arrogant, “look at what everyone else is overlooking.” * I cannot think of the creative process as a shot. To me, I make pictures. Thank you for reading - ALLES LIEBE AUS DEM BAUMHAUS
Wind Blowing From Left to Right Blowing Through Cherry Blossom. Schmeterlingfeld, is a tiny space of green to encourage biodiversity along the side of the Landwehr Canal, Berlin. On this space, smaller than half a tennis court are three juvenile cherry trees. They are always a treat to see and photograph. Every year this mini Sakura is a magnet for me. It is in itself worth the effort but it is on the exact location of a memorable scene from Wim Wenders’ Der Himmel über Berlin (Wings of Desire), 1987. That’s enough for me. Good times - Over the last decade, these flora portraits have become my passion and delight. I simply love making them. When I look back at my pictures I always struck by what I would have missed if I wasn’t looking. - What I would like any viewer to understand about my photography is the following. * I make 90% of my work in Berlin Green Spaces. This topographical landscape has memory. It tells stories. I am a storyteller.  * I prefer to work "in camera" so there is minimal post processing on my pictures. These pictures are straight out of the camera. * They are all daytime pictures, underexposed to appear dark and relit with an off camera flash.  * Influenced consciously by 15th to 18th century European Painting but unconsciously, just about everything else.  * I am clearly stating, "Look what I would have missed if I wasn't looking" which feels one hundred times more authentic than the somewhat arrogant, “look at what everyone else is overlooking.”  * I cannot think of the creative process as a shot. To me, I make pictures. Thank you for reading - ALLES LIEBE AUS DEM BAUMHAUS
A picture looking throught the branches of a magnolia tree, illuminated by a flash. Every year I visit the same tree. Will there be a new picture for me this year? Yes. There always is. It is always a treat. - Over the last decade, these flora portraits have become my passion and delight. I simply love making them. When I look back at my pictures I always struck by what I would have missed if I wasn’t looking. - What I would like any viewer to understand about my photography is the following. * I make 90% of my work in Berlin Green Spaces. This topographical landscape has memory. It tells stories. I am a storyteller.  * I prefer to work "in camera" so there is minimal post processing on my pictures. These pictures are straight out of the camera. * They are all daytime pictures, underexposed to appear dark and relit with an off camera flash.  * Influenced consciously by 15th to 18th century European Painting but unconsciously, just about everything else.  * I am clearly stating, "Look what I would have missed if I wasn't looking" which feels one hundred times more authentic than the somewhat arrogant, “look at what everyone else is overlooking.”  * I cannot think of the creative process as a shot. To me, I make pictures.
The COLD SONG, after Klaus Nomi Willowing. Part 1. - Friedhof Alt-Stralau 10245 Berlin - One of the most beautiful songs in my world for one on my most beautiful trees. I can listen to this version form the Purcell opera, over and over and never fail to be moved. Contradiction, Part 100+. I claim I don’t enjoy songs or soundtracks to visual arts. The music is by it’s very nature more accessible and shapes the response to the visual arts, turning my experience of it into a passive interaction. Of course, this is the intention but I claim prefer without. I have a soundtrack to all of my pictures, the city of Berlin. In this particular day I had an ear worm for what I now know to be the Klaus Nomi version of The Cold Song. - Over the last decade, these flora portraits have become my passion and delight. These photographs are all day time, with virtually no post processing. I make them in the camera. When I look back at my pictures I always struck by what I would have missed if I wasn’t looking. What I would like any viewer to understand about my work is the following. * I make 90% of my work in Berlin Green Spaces. This topographical landscape has memory. It tells stories. I am a storyteller.  * I prefer to work "in camera" so there is minimal post processing on my pictures. These pictures are straight out of the camera. * They are all daytime pictures, underexposed to appear dark and relit with an off camera flash.  * Influenced consciously by 15th to 18th century European Painting but unconsciously, just about everything else.  * I am clearly stating, "Look what I would have missed if I wasn't looking" which feels one hundred times more authentic than the somewhat arrogant, “look at what everyone else is overlooking.”  Thank you for reading - ALLES LIEBE AUS DEM BAUMHAUS
Conductor 71 A photograph of roses named after the magnificent Marius Re Goring in the Powell & Pressburger’s A Matter of Life and Death. Photographed in colour in Treptower Park. The photograph has a low view point and we look up at three small clusters of roses in a V composition. The two clusters above and to the back are a lot darker than the group of roses at the intersection of the V. Beyond the roses is a partly overcast sky with the sun behind the clouds crating a silver lining. My pictures are daylight, underexposed and relit with an off camera flash. They are nearly all photographed in cities I do not post process these pictures. I don’t really like photography in general that much if I am honest.
Sunflowers photographed in black and white against a dark blue sky that appears to be black in this monochrome image. What I would like any viewer to understand about my work is the following. * I make 90% of my work in Berlin Green Spaces. This topographical landscape has memory. It tells stories. I am a storyteller.  * I prefer to work "in camera" so there is minimal post processing on my pictures. These pictures are straight out of the camera. * They are all daytime pictures, underexposed to appear dark and relit with an off camera flash.  * Influenced consciously by 15th to 18th century European Painting but unconsciously, just about everything else.  * I am clearly stating, "Look what I would have missed if I wasn't looking" which feels one hundred times more authentic than the somewhat arrogant, “look at what everyone else is overlooking.” 
The Garden of Earthly Delights: Bish, Bash, Bosch Tunnelstraße 36B 10245 Berlin A picture AFTER Hieronymus Bosch 1450-1516 I have been trying to figure how how spectacularly damaged you have to be to thing that Trump is a good thing? Haven’t come up with an answer and I doubt I ever will? So absolutely nothing to do with photography, so I better write something for those who are still reading, if indeed anyone reads this nonsense. It is a picture of a magnolia tree in blossom that virtually fills the square format frame. The Petals look like gloved hands or white butterflies that form a cup like curve through the picture starting form the top left, curving down to the bottom before curving up to the top right. The sky was bright blue on the day I made this picture, so in B&W, it appears black. What I would like any viewer to understand about my work is the following. * I make 90% of my work in Berlin Green Spaces. This topographical landscape has memory. It tells stories. I am a storyteller.  * I prefer to work "in camera" so there is minimal post processing on my pictures. These pictures are straight out of the camera. * They are all daytime pictures, underexposed to appear dark and relit with an off camera flash.  * Influenced consciously by 15th to 18th century European Painting but unconsciously, just about everything else.  * I am clearly stating, "Look what I would have missed if I wasn't looking" which feels one hundred times more authentic than the somewhat arrogant, “look at what everyone else is overlooking.”  Thank you for reading ALLES LIEBE AUS DEM BAUMHAUS
THE PEACE OF WILD THINGS Treptower Park Puschkinallee 12435 Berlin A picture of a group of poppies photographed in a park in, Berlin. My pictures are very dark because I underexpose them, then relight them with an off camera flash. The light falling on the red petals makes them look like silk or raw flesh. You can choose. I have named this picture after a poem by the american poet, Wendell Berry. “When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.” Good, isn't it? Poetry. I wasn’t always calm enough to understand it. To my pleasure I have grown a taste for it. Now more than ever, in our new age of empires, I need to meditate on the words. What I would like any viewer to understand about my work is the following. * I make 90% of my work in Berlin Green Spaces. This topographical landscape has memory. It tells stories. I am a storyteller.  * I prefer to work "in camera" so there is minimal post processing on my pictures. These pictures are straight out of the camera. * They are all daytime pictures, underexposed to appear dark and relit with an off camera flash.  * Influenced consciously by 15th to 18th century European Painting but unconsciously, just about everything else.  * I am clearly stating, "Look what I would have missed if I wasn't looking" which feels one hundred times more authentic than the somewhat arrogant, “look at what everyone else is overlooking.”  Thank you for reading ALLES LIEBE AUS DEM BAUMHAUS
Coasting 26434 Wangerland (yes it is really called that) Lower Saxony A low light picture of sand grass on a small sand dune. Top to bottom, The sky is a deep blue, a benefit of the winter light. The grass is being blown from the right to left and the detail is picked out by my flash which gives the grass a metallic appearance . At the bottom of the composition the sand is a dark grey brown colour. It was cold to touch on this deep winter day on the North Sea coast of Germany. What I would like any viewer to understand about my work is the following. * I make 90% of my work in Berlin Green Spaces. This topographical landscape has memory. It tells stories. I am a storyteller.  * I prefer to work "in camera" so there is minimal post processing on my pictures. These pictures are straight out of the camera. * They are all daytime pictures, underexposed to appear dark and relit with an off camera flash.  * Influenced consciously by 15th to 18th century European Painting but unconsciously, just about everything else.  * I am clearly stating, "Look what I would have missed if I wasn't looking" which feels one hundred times more authentic than the somewhat arrogant, “look at what everyone else is overlooking.” 
Blue. Blau. Bleu. Blu & Blah! 
 * I make 90% of my work in Berlin Green Spaces. This topographical landscape has memory. It tells stories. I am a storyteller.  * I prefer to work "in camera" so there is minimal post processing on my pictures. These pictures are straight out of the camera. * They are all daytime pictures, underexposed to appear dark and relit with an off camera flash.  * Influenced consciously by 15th to 18th century European Painting but unconsciously, just about everything else.  * I am clearly stating, "Look what I would have missed if I wasn't looking" which feels one hundred times more authentic than the somewhat arrogant, “look at what everyone else is overlooking.”  1700s Berlin is one of the world centres for Chemistry. Linked to the Royal Families passion for Alchemy, they employ chemists (alchemists) not just to pursue the race for base metals into Gold & Silver but for the challenge of Synthetic Blues. Synthetic Blue is first written about by the chemist Johann Jacob Diesbach in the early 1700s. The first factory produced Prussian also known as Berlin or Brandenburg Blue, is in the 1900 century but the French state that they invented it first. Blue is the most restful of the primary colours still. It is symbolised by the angelic or spiritual across all societies independent of faith constructs. Blue as part of the daylight colour scale is the result of the earliest form of photography now known as Cyanotype from the ancient Greek kyáneos 'dark blue' and τύπος, týpos 'mark. It was named this from the Shadows on the wall concept of Plato's allegory of the cave.
Wintering: Part 1 Winter Cherry in Berlin Darklight 
Görlitzer Ufer 12435 Berlin

 A very dark picture of winter blossoming cherry, stretched out in front of the silhouette of a much larger tree. I found that the branches of the cherry sat like an overlay over the back ground details. The hint of pink from the blossom stands out nicely from the dark blue of the winter light. I love winter light. This is a good thing as I live in Berlin. This geographical truth equates to long hot summers, a short but beautiful autumn, very dark, dark winters and an explosive spring. This winter light is dominated by low cloud. Somewhere just above it the sun is shinning and this effects the back drop to my pictures. Marbling the clouds from the reverse side delivers a stunning textured back drop for my photography. In essence my photographic practice is this.  * I make 90% of my work in Berlin Green Spaces. This topographical landscape has memory. It tells stories. I am a storyteller.  * I prefer to work "in camera" so there is minimal post processing on my pictures. These pictures are straight out of the camera. * They are all daytime pictures, underexposed to appear dark and relit with an off camera flash.  * Influenced consciously by 15th to 18th century European Painting but unconsciously, just about everything else.  * I am clearly stating, "Look what I would have missed if I wasn't looking" which feels one hundred times more authentic than the somewhat arrogant, “look at what everyone else is overlooking.”  Making these pictures is something that makes me feel very happy. To me they are full of art historical references but this is far from obvious to the casual viewer. They are at their best when printed. Alles liebe aus dem BaumHaus
Wintering: Part 1 Winter Cherry in Berlin Darklight 
Görlitzer Ufer 12435 Berlin

A very dark picture of winter blossoming cherry, stretched out in front of the silhouette of a much larger tree. I found that the branches of the cherry sat like an overlay over the back ground details. The hint of pink from the blossom stands out nicely from the dark blue of the winter light. I love winter light. This is a good thing as I live in Berlin. This geographical truth equates to long hot summers, a short but beautiful autumn, very dark, dark winters and an explosive spring. This winter light is dominated by low cloud. Somewhere just above it the sun is shinning and this effects the back drop to my pictures. Marbling the clouds from the reverse side delivers a stunning textured back drop for my photography. In essence my photographic practice is this.  * I make 90% of my work in Berlin Green Spaces. This topographical landscape has memory. It tells stories. I am a storyteller.  * I prefer to work "in camera" so there is minimal post processing on my pictures. These pictures are straight out of the camera. * They are all daytime pictures, underexposed to appear dark and relit with an off camera flash.  * Influenced consciously by 15th to 18th century European Painting but unconsciously, just about everything else.  * I am clearly stating, "Look what I would have missed if I wasn't looking" which feels one hundred times more authentic than the somewhat arrogant, “look at what everyone else is overlooking.”  Making these pictures is something that makes me feel very happy. To me they are full of art historical references but this is far from obvious to the casual viewer. They are at their best when printed. Alles liebe aus dem BaumHaus
Kinder und Haushaltsmärchen A winter picture. Dark with rich colours. The subject is of a little plant with silver seed pods that look like leaves. It is the silver seed pods of Lunaria annua, commonly known as honesty or annual honesty. I have relit the whole composition with a flash so the seed pods shine in the dark. Inspired or under the influence of the Brothers Grimm short story for children Das singende, klingende Bäumchen, which terrified me as a child, fascinated me as a teenager and perplexed me as an adult. Why on earth would you upset your children with the sole aim of comforting them afterwards? So many of the Grimm’s collection of folklore does this. This interest in morality lessons led me to read a little more about the origins of these fables. To my surprise they are a lot more international than I knew at the time. Now I understand that stories flow along the trade routes like any other precious article. This photograph is underexposed and then relit with an off camera flash. The whole effect is theatrical, it makes the subject look other worldly. This technique is based on what others may refer to as Day for Night, La Nuit américaine (American Night). That if you are interested in such things, this is the method but my aim is to see our shared environment in a way that I find beautiful and moving. I am as inspired by western art, in particular painting from the 16th to the 18th century. This is as a result of working as a lecturer for the National Gallery for over 27 years. I can never unlearn what I know and this joy for knowledge and art history is at the beating heart of my photography. I feel my pictures are pretty hard to define but are at their best when printed. They need time, they need a certain amount of art historical knowledge. This makes it quite tricky for myself when it comes to definition. Typical me. On the plus side, they are very beautiful so for many viewers it can rest at that. 

Keep sharing the beauty
Wind Streaming Through Jerusalems A low view point picture of Jerusalem Artichoke flowers with the wind gusting in between them. The closest bright yellow flower head is slightly out of focus as it dipped into the foreground of the picture, creating a heightened sense of movement and visual drama. All of the yellow flower heads are being blown from right to left, all are at an angle of 45˚ or more. Just to the left of the vertical axis is the sun, hidden behind the clouds and a flower head. This is a bright daylight picture made on Tempelhofer Feld, Berlin. I liked the link between Jerusalem & the Templars. In reality Jerusalem Artichokes are not from Jerusalem or Artichokes. They are a type of sunflower and from the Americas. I am sorry about that. This photograph is deliberately underexposed and then relight with an off camera flash. My aim is to see our shared environment in a way that I find beautiful and moving. I am as inspired by western art, in particular painting from the 16th to the 18th century. This is as a result of working as a lecturer for the National Gallery for over 27 years. I feel my pictures are pretty hard to define but are at their best when printed. They need time, they need a certain amount of art historical knowledge. This makes it quite tricky for myself when it comes to definition. Typical me. On the plus side, they are very beautiful so for many viewers it can rest at that. Over the last decade, this form flora photography, closer to portrait than a traditional landscape has become my passion and delight. These photographs are all day time, with virtually no post processing. I make them in the camera. When I look back at my pictures I always struck by what I would have missed if I wasn’t looking. That is one of the gifts of photography for me. 

 Keep sharing the beauty
Title: The Scent of Pepper & Seawater Camera Data: ƒ/16 @1/2000 ISO:200 Daylight & Flash (on, fired) Title: The Scent of Pepper & Seawater Camera Data: ƒ/16 @1/2000 ISO:200 Daylight & Flash (on, fired) The subject is of summer grass growing infront of the silhouette of a small tree. The grass in the foreground is thin and spindly and appears to be very delicate, almost like silk spider trails. The grass touches all parts of the overall picture like daytime fireworks. The tree in the background is very small and is leaning from the bottom right to the top left of the composition. Because my low viewpoint it leans over the composition as a whole and has a real emotional presence. The tree is virtually silhouetted against a dark blue sky that is partly filled with rolling cumulus clouds. Last august for the first time in what has felt like years, I had a summer holiday. I do not jump on an aircraft without thinking of the negative impact on our environment so this was a trip by train, ferry and coach. I can’t turn off what I know to suit my own ends. A Beach holiday. These pictures are made on the reverse, or the landward side of sand dunes on the Danish baltic coast. In my opinion (which I will change) these are the best pictures I made last year. The most original for me, anyway. Over the last decade, these flora portraits have become my passion and delight. These photographs are all day time, with virtually no post processing. I make them in the camera. When I look back at my pictures I always struck by what I would have missed if I wasn’t looking. That is one of the gifts of photography for me. collectors editions are available on enquiry. Alles liebe aus dem BaumHaus
A Lotus flower illuminated by an off camera flash, photographed in The Botanische Gärten der Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn ( Love that name). This Lotus flower seems to be illuminating the surrounding picture, like a lamp/ A very pleasing effect of the flash defusing through the petals. My pictures are all underexposed and then relit with an off camera flash. I hope to achieve a very theatrical form of image that works towards the narrative light used in the history of Western Art. This light play can be literal or suggested. I think as much of portraiture in the 16th-18th centuries as I do stage and film. Of course the later have played an important part in the development of my visual literacy. I feel my pictures are pretty hard to define but are at their best when printed. They need time, they need a certain amount of art historical knowledge. This makes it quite tricky for myself when it comes to definition. Typical me. On the plus side, they are very beautiful so for many viewers it can rest at that. I had photographed this very flower head 24 hours before when it was only partially open. I was contacted via Instagram by one of the garden staff who suggested that I should revisit, if I was still in Bonn? I was. I did and have now exhibited this picture no fewer than four times, in four different countries. There is such a mystical attribution to the lotus in eastern cultures. This species is western, a native of North America and was considered invasive, so cut back or farmed to a state where it is now on the endangered register. It was apparently distributed throughout the Americas by first nation peoples who carried the seeds as food. I always wanted to go back to America but I think I have grown out of that now.
Two pictures of Reed beds in the wetland of Rügen. Two of the coldest pictures I have made. The first is taken directly into the setting sun. I use an off camera flash to relight what are very dark daylight pictures. The second picture is made by simply turning through 180˚ and photographing the moon as it settles into the winter sky. This first picture is divided into several distinct horizontal registers. From the top to the bottom, there is a thin strip of bright orange horizon, with the sun at the centre of the composition setting into the reeds. Beneath it there is a small number of reeds haloing in the setting light. The next group of reeds are illuminated by my flash. They lean from right to left in the freezing wind. The bottom of the picture is very dark, with a few stems growing out of the water which is almost black. Wetlands. When I get the chance, I jump at it. Thiessow is the southern most tip of the Baltic Island of Rügen, Mecklenburg-Vorpommen. My god at this time of year it is cold there. In England we have the saying “It’s Baltic out there”. This amazing wetland is the host to thousands of wintering birds. The noise of the Tundra (Bewick) swans is distinctive and very bloody loud, even through three layers of hoods. I love my thermal underwear. Over the last decade, these flora portraits have become my passion and delight. These photographs are all day time, with virtually no post processing. I make them in the camera. When I look back at my pictures I always struck by what I would have missed if I wasn’t looking. That is one of the gifts of photography for me. collectors editions are available on enquiry. Alles liebe aus dem BaumHaus and keep sharing the beauty
Reed beds in the wetland of Rügen. Compositionally this picture is divided into three registers. The top of the picture is a deep Prussian Blue. The middle register or band is made of a wall of reed stems, leaning slightly to the right and glistening in the rain. They have a tarnished gold appearance. The bottom part of the composition is dark and made of the trimmed stalks. They really crunched under my feet. The sound of this picture would be the wind through the rushes, the sound or train through my three layers of all weather hoods, and hundreds, if not thousands of Swans. Tundra swans wintering in the milder climate of the Baltic. I may have had an optimistic whistle to keep my spirits up. Wetlands. When I get the chance, I jump at it. Thiessow is the southern most tip of the Baltic Island of Rügen, Mecklenburg-Vorpommen. My god at this time of year it is cold there. In England we have the saying “It’s Baltic out there”. This amazing wetland is the host to thousands of wintering birds. The noise of the Tundra (Bewick) swans is distinctive and very bloody loud, even through three layers of hoods. They are bold and always hungry, so any sandwich is considered theirs. They also mocked my pink bike, that belongs to the appartment that I call basecamp. The house is named after the Red Throated Diver and has a log burner. I love my thermal underwear. Over the last decade, these flora portraits have become my passion and delight. These photographs are all day time, with virtually no post processing. I make them in the camera. When I look back at my pictures I always struck by what I would have missed if I wasn’t looking. That is one of the gifts of photography for me. collectors editions are available on enquiry. Alles liebe aus dem BaumHaus
Knights Templar Field Tilting Poppies. 

A red poppy tilting towards the viewer, lit by an off camera flash, it stands out perfectly amongst the bright green surrounding plants. It reminds me of blood. Maybe a little long as a title? I do like my titles to refer to my mindset while making the photograph. I prefer the language of creating to taking. I loathe the term shots. I associate that with guns. a legacy of american gun ownership. Tempelhofer Feld, near my Berlin home, is the former land of the Knights Templar, a crusading order of young religious men who would not inherit under the feudal system of inheritance. There were a large number of German Knights, in the European order of chivalry, acting as "security" for pilgrims to the so called Holy Land. These religiously motivated individuals would often need to borrow heavily to fund their Papal sanctioned "travels". Often borrowing from Jewish Money Lenders, it was not uncommon for the knights to turn on their lenders and murder them as a God sanctioned act of faith. This convenient antisemitic act of murder also cancelled their debt. It was so common that the pope intervened to stop this unsanctioned act of violence. The German knights had to be reigned in for their barbaric acts that could threaten the funding of the whole crusading initiative. More recently the land has been a military parade ground and an airport, it is now a large park land in the centre of Berlin. Of course it is under threat for redevelopment. There is always someone who can smell money in it. These "people" promise that the land will be redeveloped with "affordable properties". Affordable is a relative term and I would ask affordable to whom? There is still money in this land.
THREE PICTURES OF SUNFLOWERS There is something about sunflowers that I find quite unsettling. Three pictures of the same sunflowers at different parts of their cycle photographed in the community gardens on Tempelhofer Feld, Berlin. Full bloom, going over and all but dead. A shell of the former selves. I don’t know which picture I prefer, they all have the same unsettling effect on me. My pictures are all underexposed and then relit with an off camera flash. I hope to achieve a theatrical form of image that works towards the narrative light used in the history of Western Art. This light play can be literal or implied. I think as much of portraiture in the 16th-18th centuries as I do stage and film. Of course the later have played an important part in the development of my visual literacy. Yes, you can think of Van Gogh if you wish, but I am thinking more of the painted self portrait of van Dyck. I feel my pictures are pretty hard to define and are at their best when printed, which is ironic as we are viewing this on a device. They need time, they need a certain amount of art historical knowledge. This makes it quite tricky for myself when it comes to definition. On the plus side, they are visually easily accessible for viewers, so it can rest at that. This is the second of six printed photographs I would exhibit. Photographed of 8 months I revisited the same plants again and again. I find this sky scrapper of a plant fascinating.
A Lotus flower in Black & White illuminated by an off camera flash, photographed in The Botanische Gärten der Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn ( ♡ that name). This Lotus flower had just opened it’s head of petals. I had been messaged by a volunteer gardener, to “come back and take a look.” I had spent time making pictures there the previous day. “If I was still in Bonn, then I may like what has happened to the lotus.” I was. I did. I still do. I will always be grateful to someone else’s generosity of spirit. This lotus flower is now fully illuminating the other elements of the picture, like a lamp. The leaves of the plant are lifting in a gust of wind and were rubbing together with a characteristic squeak. I love what is for me a very pleasing effect of the flash defusing through the petals. The Lotus illuminates the surrounding picture. It is THE light. Physically speaking, not metaphysically. God and I have quarrelled and we are still not talking to each other. My pictures are all underexposed and then relit with an off camera flash. I think as much of painted portraiture in the 16th-18th centuries as I do stage and film. Of course the later has played an important part in my visual literacy. I feel my pictures are pretty hard to define and are at their best when printed. They need time. They need a certain amount of art historical knowledge. This makes it quite tricky for myself when it comes to definition. On the plus side, they are visually easily accessible for viewers, so it can rest at that depending on your visual literacy. This is the second of six printed photographs I have exhibited. Photographed of 24 hours I was privileged to make a lot of friends at the Botanical Garden & still enjoy their support today. This species is western, a native of North America and was considered invasive, so cut back or farmed to a state that it is now on the endangered spices register. Isn't that just typical of you America?
A Lotus flower in Black & White illuminated by an off camera flash, photographed in The Botanische Gärten der Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn ( Love that name). This Lotus flower has a closed head of petals that is just starting to open. The lotus seems to be illuminating the surrounding picture, like a lamp. The flower stem has a slight lean to the right of the picture. The leaves of the plant are lifting in a gust of wind and were rubbing together with a characteristic squeak. I found this a very pleasing effect of the flash defusing through the petals. The Lotus illuminates the surrounding picture. My pictures are all underexposed and then relit with an off camera flash. I hope to achieve a theatrical form of image that works towards the narrative light used in the history of Western Art. This light play can be literal or implied. I think as much of portraiture in the 16th-18th centuries as I do stage and film. Of course the later have played an important part in the development of my visual literacy. I feel my pictures are pretty hard to define and are at their best when printed, which is ironic as we are viewing this on a device. They need time, they need a certain amount of art historical knowledge. This makes it quite tricky for myself when it comes to definition. On the plus side, they are visually easily accessible for viewers, so it can rest at that. This is the first of six printed photographs I would exhibit. Photographed of 24 hours I was privileged to make a lot of friends at the Botanical Garden and still enjoy their support today. This species is western, a native of North America and was considered invasive, so cut back or farmed to a state where it is now on the endangered spices register. It was apparently distributed throughout the Americas by first nation peoples who carried the seeds as food. A little factoid to finish with. It makes no difference to the picture.
A Lotus flower illuminated by an off camera flash, photographed in The Botanische Gärten der Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn ( Love that name). This Lotus flower seems to be illuminating the surrounding picture, like a lamp/ A very pleasing effect of the flash defusing through the petals. My pictures are all underexposed and then relit with an off camera flash. I hope to achieve a very theatrical form of image that works towards the narrative light used in the history of Western Art. This light play can be literal or suggested. I think as much of portraiture in the 16th-18th centuries as I do stage and film. Of course the later have played an important part in the development of my visual literacy. I feel my pictures are pretty hard to define but are at their best when printed. They need time, they need a certain amount of art historical knowledge. This makes it quite tricky for myself when it comes to definition. Typical me. On the plus side, they are very beautiful so for many viewers it can rest at that. I had photographed this very flower head 24 hours before when it was only partially open. I was contacted via Instagram by one of the garden staff who suggested that I should revisit, if I was still in Bonn? I was. I did and have now exhibited this picture no fewer than four times, in four different countries. There is such a mystical attribution to the lotus in eastern cultures. This species is western, a native of North America and was considered invasive, so cut back or farmed to a state where it is now on the endangered spices register. It was apparently distributed throughout the Americas by first nation peoples who carried the seeds as food. Both the people and the flower are now under threat
A Lotus flower illuminated by an off camera flash, photographed in The Botanische Gärten der Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn ( Love that name). My pictures are all underexposed and then relit with an off camera flash. I hope to achieve a very theatrical form of image that works towards the narrative light used in the history of Western Art. This light play can be literal or suggested. I think as much of portraiture in the 16th-18th centuries as I do stage and film. Of course the later have played an important part in the development of my visual literacy. I feel my pictures are pretty hard to define but are at their best when printed. They need time, they need a certain amount of art historical knowledge. This makes it quite tricky for myself when it comes to definition. Typical me. On the plus side, they are very beautiful so for many viewers it can rest at that.
Sat in a ditch in Denmark, thinking of Richard Dadd’s The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke (1855–1864) & Albrecht Dürer’s Great Piece of Turf (1503) while I composed this photograph. That came as a surprise to me as I was not considering either of them before hand, I made this picture and they jumped out of my unconscious. Literally, I understand why. To have those two artists rattling around in my mind seemed amusing at the time and I remember laughing to myself. The art history is always there even when I ma not looking for it. After 27 years of working as a lecturer for the National Gallery, London, it would be hard to ignore all of that learning. This is a daytime photograph, underexposed, then relit with an off camera flash. The whole effect is theatrical and in this case it makes the barley look almost architectural as the flash illuminates the stems. This technique is loosely based on what photography and art historians may refer to as Day for Night, La Nuit américaine (American Night). That is the method but my aim is to see our shared environment in a way that I find beautiful and moving. The picture is a photograph from a low view point (a ditch) looking at a field of ripe golden barley, which makes strong vertical lines to the top of the picture. The ears or seed heads are curved over. Laced through the stems are many Ox Eye Daisies, which move ones eye through the composition as we become aware of the different daisies. A little like looking at the stars in the night sky. The top of the picture is a suggestion of inky blue and the clouds in the sky. 

Over the last decade, this form flora photography, closer to portrait than a traditional landscape has become my passion and delight. These photographs are all day time, with virtually no post processing. I make them in the camera. When I look back at my pictures I always struck by what I would have missed if I wasn’t looking. That is one of the gifts of photography for me.
Snow flakes falling in front of a bare leaved winter tree. This photograph is deliberately underexposed and then relight with an off camera flash. The whole effect is theatrical and it makes the snow flakes look like blossom petals as the flash illuminates them. This technique is loosely based on what photography and art historians may refer to as Day for Night, La Nuit américaine (American Night). That is the method but my aim is to see our shared environment in a way that I find beautiful and moving. I am as inspired by western art, in particular painting from the 16th to the 18th century. This is as a result of working as a lecturer for the National Gallery for over 27 years. I can never unlearn what I know and this joy for knowledge and art history is at the beating heart of my photography. Since the term became used in a political sense, it is safe to say, I am a Snowflake. I honour my sense of Justice and equality for all. I am not using others to feel safer or better about the challenges that modern life throws in out faces. Freedom of speech does not mean a free for all of solipsistic “truths” that suit me in the echo chamber of my limited paranoid, life experience. I have a moral compass that often points to empathy. I do not have or would ever offer answers to complex questions. These are values I hold true. I AM A SNOWFLAKE. Over the last decade, this form flora photography, closer to portrait than a traditional landscape has become my passion and delight. These photographs are all day time, with virtually no post processing. I make them in the camera. When I look back at my pictures I always struck by what I would have missed if I wasn’t looking. That is one of the gifts of photography for me.
This photograph is deliberately underexposed and then relit with an off camera flash. The whole effect is theatrical and it makes the barley look soft, almost like velvet to touch. This technique is loosely based on what photography and art historians may refer to as Day for Night, La Nuit américaine (American Night). That is the method but my aim is to see our shared environment in a way that I find beautiful and moving. I am as inspired by western art, in particular painting from the 16th to the 18th century. This is as a result of working as a lecturer for the National Gallery for over 27 years. I can never unlearn what I know and this joy for knowledge and art history is at the beating heart of my photography. This photograph is of a Barley field in the heart of what is considered to be part of the most right wing parts of Germany. There were AƒD posters everywhere. I could feel my hackles rising as I walked along, cursing and swearing on the inside, then I saw this field. All of the anger and disappointment I felt for these common men and women just evaporated. This is a picture from a few years ago that I have never shared, it caught my eye once again. Down went the shoulders and breath. I can think clearly once I have been contemplating why I make my work. It turns out that the blah I bang on about in my artist statement is true. Who would have thought it? Over the last decade, this form flora photography, closer to portrait than a traditional landscape has become my passion and delight. These photographs are all day time, with virtually no post processing. I make them in the camera. When I look back at my pictures I always struck by what I would have missed if I wasn’t looking. That is one of the gifts of photography for me.
A trailing wild Clematis covered in snow against the silhouette of a winter tree. In my experience it is a genuine test of time revisiting pictures. Everything photographically feels or seems to have a limited number of looks before become bored of it and move on to the next thing. I don't experience that with paintings. I can concentrate. Of course a painting is made by applying bound pigment to a surface, so the touch is sensual, engaging. This moment of light at 1/2000 of a second cannot hold my attention in the same way. But I can try to make photographs that I want to live with. I really am pleased with the subtle colouring in the clouds. From the pinks to the greens the clouds speak to me of how black paint, or the illusion of black fabric was mixed and painted in Netherlandish art. Then there is the the snow on the foreground Devils Darning Needle, so pure. It will never, can never, be touched. There is drama in that for me.
The Shape of Wind Through Leaves and the Incident of the Little Dog's Squeaky Toy, is a very long title. The photograph is of an autumnal tree covered in yellow leaves. The "little dogs squeaky toy" reference is about a little Jack Russell dog who ran up to me to see what I was doing. Full of energy this dog dropped it's toy for me to pick up a throw. Of course I did. Several times. This ball throwing incident happens to me quite a lot as my flash is mounted on a bracket that is similar in appearance to a throwing launcher for dogs toys. Good times. The leaves on the tree form an almost ball like shape on with a slight lean to the left as the strong wind blows from right to left. All of the leaves shimmer in the wind. Photographed in Brockwell Park, South London, this is a deliberately underexposed, so a dark picture, relit by an off camera flash. There are grey clouds scudding behind the tree. Everything is in motion. The composition is square and very close on the tree. A picture that makes me very happy. Every picture is a memory. Every picture tells a story
A CHRISTMAS THEMED ROMANTIC COMEDY The Soviet War Memorial Treptower Park Berlin 16th December 2018 On exhibition at Atelier André Kirchner BERLIN IM FOTOBUCH 10 Jahre Atelier Kirchner Ausstellung: 23. November 2024 - 11. Januar 2025
Large, battered sunflower heads agains a very dark sky. Photographed on Tempelhofer Feld, Berlin, these flower heads (15 in total) seem to all have turned towards the viewer at the same moment. These flowers now seem to be assoicated with the Russian War dead in Ukraine. I don't know if it is true but part of the mythology of the war is that Ukranian women gave sunflower seeds to the invading Russian soldiers. When they were buried the flowers would grow. That is very emotionally dark. I used this picture to raise funds for Ukraine in an onlineprint sale organised by my agent Tea & Water Pictures.
A carpet of yellow leaves beneath a tree laden with the same yellow leaves. A common enough sight in Hyde Park, London. Photographed Low available autumnal daylight, with off camera fill in flash. The tree and the leaves on the floor fill the composition approx 50% - 50%to the top and edge of the image frame creating a wall of yellow.