"Ian Lockwood's passion for nature is matched only by his urge to capture it in black and white images. His love for sky and earth, and all that adds magic and myth to life is contagious. His obsession with B&W photography is inspiring. He tells Dinesh Krishnan how a single image can transform the world. "
When and how did nature become so integrated with your being that all your work relives that relationship?
For me nature is a story of complex interrelationships, unsurpassed beauty and intense mystery. Very often, I try and capture this mystical, mythical web of existence. I grew up in Bangladesh’s sal forests and India’s southern Western Ghats. My happiest moments were wandering and exploring less trammeled corners of these forests and hills. In the beginning I photographed beautiful plant compositions. Later I worked hard to learn scientific names and the role that species play in a particular ecosystem. These experiences laid the foundation for my work as a photographer and educator.
How did your initial urge to take up photography come about? Was it because you were living very close to nature and wanted to photograph it or simply because photography happened naturally to you?
Photography is something that I inherited from my family. My father, Merrick, is a scientist with an eclectic range of interests: he raised an orphaned chimpanzee in the Peace Corps before he had a family. Later he studied zoology and then completed his PhD in entomology and grain storage. He had an Olympus microscope (with a camera attachment) set up to show us children less visible creatures and we had unusual pets (bats, mongoose etc.).
In high school after many rolls of wasted film I realized that I really enjoyed taking pictures of the mountains and my adventures with my friends. I learnt black and white basics at Dovetons’s Studio, a ramshackle studio in Kodaikanal’s bazaar. This venerable establishment had very rudimentary resources — a red colored glass window for a safelight for example! Its proprietor, Rajkumar took me under his wing and generously shared his knowledge. In college I studied and appreciated the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson, Sebastião Salgado and Mary Ellen Mark. Their work focused on social documentation, something that has always interested me. But it was the fine black & white images of Ansel Adams which really set me on the path to nature photography.
The role of humans in changing landscapes and ecosystems has been an important theme in my work. The Palni Hills that I explored as a student had changed dramatically since the 1950s when my father and grandfather had hiked and photographed them. Settlements and vast plantations of non-native species had sprung up and spread over once-wild areas. As a non-Indian living in, and loving, India I felt a degree of helplessness about the situation. I turned to photography to make my contribution for a better future.
You have chosen black & white to portray nature. Is it not ironical that you chose to completely strip nature of all its colours when you shoot? Black & white simplifies the elements in nature — forms, shadows and highlights. There was always something special about black & white that made it my preferred means of expression. By the time the digital revolution hit in the early 1990s I had already found my niche in black and white. Colour prints can potentially overwhelm a viewer with too much information while black & white highlights nuances and features that one might overlook in a colour print.
Of course I appreciate color photography but I find that black & white prints express what I see and feel more effectively than colour.
A technical question: Most of your images are in square format while some of them have been shot on a panoramic scale while still others are vertical strips. What is the format that you love to shoot most and why? One thing that I have wrestled with is trying to present my work in a somewhat consistent format. I started with the 6x9 film size and then settled on the 6x6 format that is the standard medium format used by commercial photographers. This format is not a traditional landscape format but I enjoy using it and being challenged by the square dimensions. I like to combine the 6x6 images with my panoramic (6x12) images in photo essays and exhibitions.
At the moment I have a limited selection of lenses but hope to do more close up 6x6 work later. In general I always print full frame images and do not use pictures that can’t be printed with all the information. I don’t shoot any 35mm black & white and have only exhibited my 120 work.
You do your own processing and printing. What kind of a set-up do you work on and how do you get the papers and chemicals for your work? Don’t you feel the crunch in raw material for those opting to shoot B&W in film? My transient lifestyle makes darkroom work difficult. At the moment my 1963 DII Omega enlarger is sitting in a large trunk. Having just moved to Sri Lanka last year it is taking me a while to get myself set up. I don’t like to leave film unprocessed and develop it in our dinning room sink (my wife Raina is very tolerant of this). I use a changing bag for loading and later hang the film in a clothes cupboard with a light to keep humidity down. I hope to set up the darkroom and start printing my latest work in the coming months. Working at a school with a darkroom is always an added plus point.
Getting chemicals and papers is increasingly difficult in this digital age. Generally I get supplies from the US. That is a serious drag on my baggage allowance and airport security frowns on highly toxic chemicals such as selenium! In the future I anticipate shooting on black & white negative film and then scanning the images before printing them on some of the new generations of archival paper.
Have you used infrared film at times, or is it only filters that you use to enhance situations? I have used Konica’s black & white infrared film quite extensively in certain lighting situations. Infrared film creates surreal images with exaggerated amounts of grain. It turns vegetation with chlorophyll to bright white and gives added contrast to sky and clouds. It must be used with a red or orange filter to get these results. The film must be used in bright sunshine; it is ineffective in diffused light. I like it because it clears up dust, a perennial problem in Indian landscapes. Konica has phased out this film although there are other companies selling similar 120 film. I now use Kodak T-Max 100 for almost everything I do (including the blue sky shots that I used to do with infrared film). I use the same filters, underexpose and add developing time, depending on situations.
Your work reminded me of Fay Godwin’s photographs of the English landscape. Her work reflects this intrinsic knowledge and love for the land, the same intensity that one sees in your images. Do you need to be knowledgeable about nature to be a good nature photographer? Without an abiding curiosity and deep interest in nature, perhaps a striking single image can be achieved but certainly not a body of work that reflects a particular theme or portrait of an ecosystem. There is a symbiotic and synergistic relationship between a photographer’s understanding of nature and his or her output.
What would your advice be to youngsters wanting to shoot nature but without being tempted to create pretty calendar images? Go and shoot regardless of the aesthetic outcome of the exercise. One learns by mistakes. Experiencing nature is an important part of this process. The sweat of a strenuous hike and exhilaration of watching a rare endemic species after a long search will eventually find reflection in the images. Browse through as many books, magazine articles and websites as possible. Study masters, Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, M Krishnan, TNA Perumal, M Y Ghorpade et al. Join an organization like the BNHS to get closer to issues that matter.
Avoiding stereotypical pretty pictures is difficult. Sometimes you need to take them just to know what not to do in future. Playing with different compositions and lighting can help make ordinary situations look unusual.
You have taught photography and environmental sciences in international schools. How much of a role do you think photography can play in the conservation of nature?
It is true that the pressure from our species on the planet has never been greater. Solutions to issues, such as the disappearance of tigers from the wild or the plight of Narmada dam oustees, are complex. As someone with a perennial hope that we can shape a better tomorrow, I tend to view the potential impact of photographs more optimistically. Photography is an effective tool that can make changes happen. Nature and landscape photographs remind us of a connection to the earth that we often forget in the normal bustle of daily routine. A single image has the ability to transform attitudes.Â
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