John Chamberlin
Introduction
John Chamberlin takes images of a wide variety of subject matter and is never afraid to tackle something new. The portfolios that follow try to reflect both the range of his interests and the breadth of his work.
John's philosophy
John has a career background in education and his interest in photography began partly as an antidote to the pressures of managing a school. Although interested in photography prior to studying at university, it was not till the end of the late nineteen seventies that he had a real opportunity to further this interest.
His photography, perhaps against current trends, is extremely wide ranging. Entirely self-taught, he relishes having broad photographic interests and works in a variety of mediums. As a consequence he has no wish to be ‘pigeonholed’. His motivation comes from a desire to tackle a variety of subject matter and put his own stamp on it, whilst at the same time making it accessible to a wide viewing public. He works in both monochrome and colour with a preference for the initial image to be captured in colour. From a colour capture he now produces both monochrome and colour prints. After many years using film material he now works entirely using digital capture.
Given the above background, it is perhaps not surprising that he cannot point to any single photographer as a major influence. Naturally, he can think of numerous photographers whose work he has admired. Some of these work in the area of natural history, others are landscape workers, sports photographers or photojournalists. Probably, sub consciously, he has internalised their approaches but he would not put it any stronger than that.
As well as pictorial and creative work and images taken on worldwide travels, he is an extremely active nature photographer with a particular love for Africa, a continent he has visited over twenty times. Living as he does in a major city, he particularly enjoys photographing in remote locations far from the bustle of western civilisation.
In the portfolios that follow, he has included a small selection of images from various locations around the world. Most are places he has visited time and time again. With landscape and wildlife photography in particular one can never be sure what might occur and whilst considerable patience is often required, the rewards can be substantial. The images seek to convey the beauty of the natural world and the creatures that survive, despite the destruction of vast tracts of their habitat. He hopes these images might make a small but personal contribution to ensuring that the planet is not destroyed by the pursuit of ever-higher living standards.
As to the future he is not too sure about what he wants to tackle next. Subject matter in the natural world is vast and he is well aware from his own personal experiences that incidents in one’s own life and in the lives of those close to us, can blow one off course.