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A bit about me, I
am 39, married with two daughters and a music teacher/rock
musician. I have been an enthusiast ever since I can remember, the
rot set in from day one, perhaps my mother was frightened by the
Flying Scotsman, or more probably a fearsome porter at Derby,
whatever the truth I have been into railways all my life.
Photographically I
began aged 14 with everybody's first toy, the 126 instamatic but
soon progressed (?) to the Halina 3000 35mm which gave alternately
good/crap results and eventually as I left school and got a job
through a range of "real" 35mm SLRS, currently I have a Pentax
K1000 and a Canon T70. I have always hankered after a Pentax 6X7
but finances have never permitted it.
I was always
influenced by railway photos that show the railway as part of its
environment rather than three quarter views and record shots
although I have done and still do take plenty of them, but they're
not the name of the game for me.
Maybe it was the
times but railway pictorials of the late 60s and early 70s seemed
to be full of pictorial shots by people like C.T. Gifford, Ian
Krause, David Percival, Malcolm Dunnett etc.and it was these that
caught my attention, possibly it was also books like Decline of
Steam, etc that showed grimy industrial scenes, like the ones I
was surrounded by as a child that fired me, I don't know.
Conversely I have always loved shots of railways out in the
countryside but the common theme is always railways in their
environment, railways as you actually see them as a casual
observer rather than a gricer and this is what I try to do with my
own work. I like the scenes of passengers at a busy station,
glimpse shots over bridges and through fences and people at work
on the railways.
I am also very
interested in the use and effects of light, silhouettes and
shadows, the sort of thing that you occasionally glimpse at a big
terminus, sunlight shining through the glass roofs, that sort of
thing.
Equipment wise, I
have never really been one for gadgets, I think that an eye for a
picture is much more important than a bag full of zooms, motor
winds, data backs and auto focus lenses etc. although I think
anything that has been invented is worth trying, I sparingly use a
telephoto lens to give a different slant to my stuff and I have
been known to use filters on occasion. Virtually all my work has
been in colour since day one, I have flirted with black and white
and will do in the future but colour seems to suit the stuff I
turn out and this will probably always be my medium.
Russell
Saxton
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