As a landscape photographer, the opportunity to photograph portraits seldom came my way although I had a lot of experience photographing Formula 1 Grand Prix drivers of the 1960s. However, photographing creative people working in their chosen landscape and environment was a subject I had often considered.

Additionally, in my early days as a freelance photographer, working both in colour and black and white I would travel frequently and capture people in their own landscape.

In some remote European towns I initially stood back and photographed these people, hoping they wouldn't notice me but later using mainly sign language and a smile I was able to close in and photograph them looking into my camera.

Some of these images may be considered as landscapes but they do include people, even as distant walkers. These were taken when working for an agency who asked me to photograph for example the landscape and people in the south Wales former mining villages. These images have now become a rather historical social statement.

In those early days I was very much influenced by the photographic greats like Henri Cartier-Bresson and Lord Snowdon to name just two and almost always photographed with a 35mm camera fitted with just a 50mm lens, hoping I would always create something in the style of Cartier-Bresson.

I was always inspired by Henri Cartier-Bresson's thoughts on Photography and Portraits:

"In a portrait, I’m looking for the silence in somebody."

“A photographer must always work with the greatest respect for his subject and in terms of his own point of view.”

"Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera."









All photographs are Copyright © Roger Lane All Rights Reserved
No website content or images may be copied or used for any purpose without permission.