Friday, 16 January 2015

331. A BEGINNING & AN END by MARK LITTLEJOHN

mark littlejohn
LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR 

Waterloo Station Mezzanine Concourse 



One morning Mark Littlejohn got up at 01:30 GMT to drive from Penrith, Cumbria to Glencoe in the Scottish Highlands, but at dawn the rain was torrential. As he wandered about waiting for gaps in the weather, he saw the stream from high up on Gearr Aonach.

 "It tumbled steeply down the slopes before vanishing again near the base of the mountain.With more squalls coming through I decided to take this image as the light became slightly more diffuse. It had to be a quick handheld shot due to the sideways rain." (Mark Littlejohn)

What takes my breath away is the illusion that the slopes and stream are very close - stretch our your hand and it could get wet. We are not distracted by a mountain skyline nor by curves and convolutions and gradients. The viewer is simply present there, breathing in the mountain air.
 
Mark Littlejohn was the overall winner of the 2014 Landscape Photographer of the Year competition which comes with prize money of £10,000. The founder of the awards, Charlie Waite, said the image discovered and isolated a "fleeting moment of beauty" within a vast and "slightly threatening" arena.

But where in central London can we go to see this image? 

Not everyday do we find an art exhibition in a railway station. Not so long ago, railway stations had tracks, a platform or two, passengers getting out of and into trains - and a ticket office. Nowadays we turn up to find a shopping mall: books, food and drink, health and beauty products, fashion, jewelry, and dozens of places to eat, drink and be merry.

So climb the steps or take the escalator to the mezzanine balcony overlooking the main concourse of Waterloo station. There you will find many entries for the 2014 Landscape Photographer of the Year competition. Many are shown as printed posters. There is an opportunity to see some displayed on the Motion@Waterloo screen - a display spreading 40m across the top of the station platforms, on and off throughout the day on these dates: 16,19, 20, 26 & 27 Jan.There is also a book published, Landscape Photographer of the Year 8 (AA),  by Charlie Waite, which I haven't seen because at the Waterloo station bookshop, Foyles, it had sold out. Always a good sign.

markljphotography.co.uk/ 

For a very interesting interview with Mark Littlejohn:


www.onlandscape.co.uk/2014/11/mark-littlejohn-landscape-photographer-year/
 
www.take-a-view.co.uk/










 

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