RMB Photographer Feature

Rocky Mountain Books has an amazing selection of photography books for you to choose from. We spoke with some of our awesome authors and photographers about their inspiration and passion for photography:

Paul Zizka 

What inspires your photography?

Nature inspires everything I do. It gets me back in touch with my inner child, with my curiosity. I’m at my best creatively when I am curious and want to see what’s around the corner or over the hill. Ten years into this, I still marvel at the interplay of light and shadow on the landscape, and at the infinite possibilities this offers me as a photographer. I love how photography makes me a better observer of all that. Of course, I find inspiration in the work of fellow photographers as well, but ultimately it’s the drive to discover that gets me out there.

What is your favorite thing about photography?

There is so much I love about the craft, but most of all I enjoy how it enhances my connection with the natural environment, how it rekindles my creativity and curiosity.

 

 

 

Daniel Fox

What kind of landscapes are your favorite to shoot and why?

The ones that are simple yet profound. There are three Japanese words that really describe the type of aesthetics I am after:

  • Yūgen, which values the power to evoke, rather than the ability to state directly. The principle of Yūgen shows that real beauty exists when, through its suggestiveness, only a few words or brush strokes can hint at what has not been said or shown, and hence awaken many inner thoughts and feelings;
  • Wabi-sabi, defined as the beauty of things “imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete”; and
  • Shibui, which refers to a particular aesthetic of simple, subtle, and unobtrusive beauty.

What is your favorite thing about photography?

We live in a culture overwhelmed with images, and I am not sure a photo can really change the world anymore the way it could decades ago. With that in mind, what attracts me to photography is its power of the subtle and unsaid, when its simplicity impacts you, like a mysterious force that compels you to look deeper. I find that nowadays we focus too much on the initial impact, the obvious, the “like.” I prefer an image that sneaks into your subconscious and connects you to something bigger.

 

 

 

 

Scott Forsyth

What kind of landscapes are your favorite to shoot and why?

The motivation to create an image comes from experiencing the subject, which for me is the open wilderness landscape. I am drawn to explore the landscapes of places less travelled, along the edges of our knowledge. The uninhabited wilderness – of towering icebergs, coastal fjords, or dense rainforests – invokes a sense of scale that lifts us out of our daily lives and thoughts and transports us into a perspective of time and significance that is spiritual.

What is your favorite thing about photography?

I hardly took a photograph while spending three years living and travelling throughout Japan and Southeast Asia, under the perception that taking a photograph can separate us from being fulling present. I sketched the places I saw instead. However, I have come to realize that when properly approached, through practising the “Art of Seeing,” photography actually connects us more closely to our environment. Not only is a potentially beautiful and lasting picture created, but in the process we begin to see things that were always there, right in front of us, yet hidden from our mind’s eye.

 

 

 

Dave Brosha

What inspires your photography?

I know it probably sounds cliché to say “nature is my cathedral,” but that’s genuinely how I feel about being outdoors, and that’s the feeling I try to translate into my images. I tend not to try to capture what I think others want to see. I want to capture what I feel in a moment, and a photograph is my little attempt to try to share that with someone else.

What is your favorite thing about photography?

Photography is an art, and I love exploring my creative side. But even greater than that – for me – is the fact that it’s a tool to allow me to connect more deeply with nature and meet all kinds of fantastic people along the way. Years from now I’ll remember all the experiences photography has given me over any one image I’ve captured.

 

 

 

George Webber

What inspires your photography?

I have great affection for the people and the vernacular architecture of the Canadian West. Making a photograph is a way to honour and hold them fast.

What is your favorite thing about photography?

Making photographs requires long, careful, and affectionate looking. It opens your heart up to what’s around you.