Its all about the light

Back in the day when I was studying History of Art as one of my high-school subjects we studied Van Gogh (who is still one of my favourites) and followed the evolution of his painting style from the very beginning in Holland until his death years later in France. One thing that struck me during those classes was the fact that Van Gogh made such a big deal about the quality of the light in the south of France, in comparison to the light in Holland. It was something that I didn’t understand at the time… I figured that the light was just the light, how could it be so different from one European country to another? I grew up in South Africa where there is an abundance of gorgeous light and in my teenage ignorance assumed it would be the same anywhere else in the world. It wasn’t until I started travelling and visited the north of Europe that I realised that there is a difference. An enormous difference. And I think that when I realised this difference, when I became acutely aware of the light and how it behaved in different circumstances, was when I really started to grow as a photographer. Once that door had been opened for me, everything else seemed to fall in place with much less effort than before.

And I also think that if Van Gogh had made it as far as Portugal in his search for beautiful light he might have stuck around Β bit longer and kept painting…

10 Comments

  1. Awesome πŸ™‚ Loved every snap πŸ™‚

  2. 50 States Design Project

    Wow! beautiful shots.

  3. Love Alentejo πŸ˜‰ love the way you captured the light!!!

  4. Well, not much to say…
    Great light! What else ?

  5. love it! so true…I shoot most of my weddings in cape town, but i am always amazed how the different the light is in Freestate & Gauteng!! Even in the same country πŸ™‚

  6. yep, its the lighting, that makes even a normal snap look like an artistic one… great post… incidentally my recent post also was about the same, not exactly but pretty much…

    Kerry, i loved the 1st and 2nd snaps.. and also both snaps of dog. hes cute, what’s his name? πŸ™‚

  7. Kerry, what a beautiful collection of photo’s! The longer I take photo’s the more I notice the importance of good light, and you capture it great in these photo’s!

  8. Thanks everyone, for your comments! xx

  9. Love these pictures of my native country!
    Wow.

  10. Your blog is a gem !

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