Gerard Smith 1

My aim is to create Fine Art Landscape Photographs that inspire. A Fine Art Landscape Photograph is a creation that combines the moments before, during and after the shutter is pressed. Attention to fine technique, composition , artistic expression and post processing ensure a work of art that viewers will truly relish.

In the same way a painter captures and interprets the scene before them, as a photographer I am limited to working with light at the moment of capture, and as master photographers such as Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Michael Zide, I post process and paint with light to truly create the vision I experienced while taking that photograph.

I revel in reaching high places from which to appreciate the power of nature, to find solace and challenges and to soar with the spirits of those summits, and as the Maori proverb says:

“Whaia e koe ki te iti kahurangi; ki te tuohu koe, me maunga teitei”

“Seek the treasure you value most dearly: if you bow your head, let it be to a lofty mountain”

My photography evokes the passage of time. I use long shutter speeds to explore the nuances of movement and the modulation of time as it passes from past to present to future. I love working with landscapes, attempting to illustrate abstract, evocative scenery as a way to portray the dream like space of time passing, much like a Monet painting.

When it comes to image composition, I am inspired by what I find in the landscape around me, I enjoy creating ephemeral photographs anchored with solid foreground objects, to play with contrast in texture and also through the juxtaposition of light and dark within a single space.

My interest in photography started early, my childhood growing up in Zambia, in Africa, led me to photograph the African savannah and wildlife, the pale light, the dust and the excitement of tracking animals on foot in the bush and taking photographs with my tiny film camera. I studied fine art initially at college along with photography and design.

Photography was used to document my climbing and travels around the world, from ice climbing in winter in Slovenia, to backpacking the Colorado Rockies and trekking with my lovely wife Joanne in the Himalayas, it has always had a focus in my life and continues to be so.

I hope I can share my visions with you and let you experience and appreciate the artwork I have created, my goal is an image that transcends the reality of the landscapes around you, a fleeting moment that may never be seen again, but captured so that you may experience it as I did.