Book Review: Charlie Waite, Behind the Photograph

Citation: Charlie Waite, Behind the Photograph: Charlie Waite’s Favourite Photographs and the Story of How They Were Made, © 2019, Flung Publishing, Gillingham, Dorset, UK. ISBN 978-0-9570830-1-1.

This recent book from Charlie Waite includes 64 of his favorite images, most in color and most presented in a two-page spread with the image on the left page and Charlie’s discussion of the making of the image on the right page. 136 pages plus introduction, foreword, and technical notes on the images. Approximate size: 11″ x 11″ (27.5 cm x 27.5 cm). Fine printing quality on heavy-weight, low luster paper.

Introduction

Charlie Waite is considered the doyen of modern British landscape photography, an art he has pursued professionally for more than forty years. The foreword from Hugh Mooney summarizes Charlie’s photography well.

“The world of contemporary photography resounds with post-modernist rhetoric and analysis . . . then there is the art of Charlie Waite and the simple joy in beautiful images for their own sake. Instantly recognizable, Charlie Waite’s landscapes are rare perfections of light, colour and composition and offer the view a luxuriant portrait of a planet at peace and one where mankind and his activities are in harmony with his surroundings.”

My Key Take-Aways

I own several volumes authored by Charlie. This current volume is the best among his volumes in my library.
Charlie’s compositions are exquisite! Each image is meticulously composed. Leading lines from the corners, any perspective corrected as needed, the images fit the frame, the subject is given breathing room yet there is little to distract the eye. It must be that every image was taken from a tripod to achieve this level of care and perfection.
I’ve long understood Charlie to be a landscape photographer. After studying this volume (and the show catalog from his 2020 show at Bosham Gallery[1]), I now think of Charlie as a travel photographer who emphasizes landscapes but also captures architecture, light & shadow, and those details many travel photographers seek. His travel images are remarkable for their absence of people while emphasizing strong, colorful, graphic images.
He masterfully uses colors and contrasting colors as compositional elements. I would like to be able to do as well. He has the patience to wait for the light.
He carefully considers a setting before deciding to make an image. This is the mark of a photographer who cut his teeth with large format cameras. No spray and pray for Charlie.
The images carry at lot of texture and detail. He shoots with medium format film and digital or full-frame DSLRs. He chooses apertures carefully to maximize depth of field while avoiding evident loss to diffraction. Many of today’s landscape photographers would do well to observe this lesson.
Given the corner to corner sharpness of his images, I expect Charlie shoots most images with prime lenses rather than zooms.
The book is more than a collection of wonderful photography. Charlie seems to never miss a chance to teach and his commentary on the making of each image is worth careful study, enhancing one’s appreciation of the image while providing lessons for the reader’s own photography.

Some of My Favorite Images

Click on the image title to see a fine reproduction on Charlie’s website.

Buonconvento (Italy). A red drape pulled to the side of a corner window in a small café in Tuscany. Yellow textured walls contrast the red drape. Image would be much less interesting if the walls were smooth rather than textured. Chose not to include the full window because to do so would have brought in too much wall and de-emphasized the subject. A simple, captivating image. Distracting elements are outside the frame.

Skanes (Tunisia). Curved ascending outdoor staircase. Three hues: white, mid-blue, gold (only!) and the blue of the staircase matches the blue of the sky. Found at or waited for the right time of day: the shadow of an out of frame railing casts on the wall as if a railing for the stairs.

Mere Downs (England). Light & shadow from a departing storm. Different textures and colors in the various fields receding into the distance make this image. This is an image that would still “work” in monochrome because there is enough hue and tonal separation to produce interesting monochrome tonal separation.

Buttermere II (Cumbria). An image one cannot pass without taking. Attractive lone tree lit by a shaft of warm sunlight through an apparent gap in the mountains. Warmly lit tree offset from background of rugged mountains in shadow.

Autoire (France). My favorite: an ancient shed along a gravel road through the forested countryside. Taken on a Christmas morning, the branches of the trees and bushes are clad in white frost. The character of the shed appeals. Where does the road lead? The scene reminds me of the New England of my origin though the shed would be made of wood and the stones used for a fence around the field.

In these days of the pandemic, an afternoon spent with Behind the Photograph will be time well-spent. His images achieve one of his stated goals: conveying a sense of peace and serenity. Every photographer can take away lessons that will improve his or her compositions from the next visit to the field. This is a book that will remain on my coffee table for quite some time as I enjoy the images again and again.