Interview with Jonathan Chritchley

#1 Please introduce yourself:
My name is Jonathan Chritchley, I was born in London, England but have lived at the coast in south west France since 1998.

#2 How did you get interested in photography?
My father was a keen amateur photographer, so there were always cameras around the house when I was a child. When I was about 6 or 7 I remember him giving me one of his old cameras and I used to carry it everywhere, framing and shooting imaginary photographs – there was no film in it – I guess I became accustomed to seeing life through the viewfinder. It was later, when I was around 21 or 22, that I decided it was what I wanted to do with my life.

#3 Do you have an artistic/photographic background?
I was always quite artistic – I loved to draw and paint, use charcoals and pencils, and my family always assumed I would eventually be some sort of artist. I actually loved comic art and for a while that was the route I was planning to follow. Things changed as they do when you’re young and I went on to study photography at art school in the UK, then ended up assisting several photographers – the greatest learning process ever!

#4 Which artist/photographer inspired your art?
The sailing photographs of Beken of Cowes, the seascapes of David Parker, and the sublime composition and camera work of French film director Luc Besson, particularly in his movie The Big Blue. The first 10 minutes of that movie, shot in black and white, are what steered me towards what I do.

#5 How much preparation do you put into taking a photograph? Are you planning every step or is it always spontaneous?
I research locations using Google Earth and the internet, then once I arrive the spontaneity takes over and the artist kicks in. I like to work to a basic plan but leave plenty of opportunity for experimentation, as I think that often my best results happen that way.

#6 What fascinates you in places that you shoot?
The sea and man’s attempts to co-exist with it. I am drawn to coastal locations, all over the world, where mankind adapts to and lives with the sometimes savage, sometimes benign force that exists within our oceans. The ocean makes me feel calm, humble and respectful, which I think are all pretty good traits for a human to be reminded of!

#7 We can see your photographs only in black and white, why have you chosen to present them in this form?
I am drawn to the simplicity of black and white, the way it reduces a landscape to elemental shapes and tones, the way it can completely change the way one views a subject or location, the way it alters ones perception of reality and adds a certain mystery to the landscape, making even the most familiar of objects seem somehow unfamiliar and somehow more special, more romantic even.