I’m an amateur photographer, though not a particularly good one. For although I’ve been taking photographs since I was 13, I rarely manage, when venturing off the beaten photographic track, to achieve what I intended when taking the shot. That’s what sets me apart from good photographers, who are able to exercise a more complete and consistent control over their work.
Speaking of control: for the past forty years, my photographic bible has been – and remains – *Die Hohe Schule der Fotografie* by Andreas Feininger, published by Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich, in its 12th edition as a paperback in 1992 (ISBN 3-453-41219-2). Although the core of the book was written as far back as the 1950s, it is still being reprinted time and again today. The first 88 pages, preceding the image section, set out with admirable clarity and simplicity all the basic photographic knowledge that an ambitious amateur photographer – regardless of whether they work in analogue or digital – needs. The author, one of the greatest photographers of the 20th century, adopts a didactic approach based on progressively increasing levels of photographic control – an unusual but highly illuminating approach.
Here I present a few of my own photographs which I still find reasonably pleasing even on second glance.