好书推介 - 戴维·沃德 （David Ward)

我一向来都认为买中文书， 是讲求缘份的。除了名著或畅销排行榜以外，其它都是可遇不可求。由其是在大马和新加坡，这次碰到，未必下一次能在遇见。所以每看到自己喜欢的中文书， 我都不加考虑，把它们给带回家。

上个星期，在一间书局，看到了几本很特别的中文风光摄影书籍。书籍的名称蛮有深度， 封面与封底的图片很独特。到了柜台拆开一本来看过后，不得了，这本摄影书籍和我平常看到的不大一样，书内的图片与内容， 非常有内涵与深度。它不谈摄影的技术，只谈图片的含义。图片的风格和我的风格有所相似，是我所追求的抽象的风光摄影。过后再拆开另外三本，内容也一样很棒。忍着痛，我决定把四本书都带走。

回家后，仔细的看一看， 四本书都有一位共同的作者， 戴维·沃德 （David Ward)。其中两本是他本人的作品，另外两本是他和另外几个人一起著作。上网查一查David Ward这名字才发现他是一位很著名的风光摄影家。 David Ward来自英国， 是最受人钦佩的风光摄影家之一。迄今为止，他的摄影足迹遍及北半球的许多地方，从挪威到美国的加利福尼亚，从法国的普罗旺斯到冰岛。

这也不是我第一次在卖了书后才发现作者大有来头，如柯锡杰，李少百，Bryan Peterson 等。遇到这样棒的摄影家和书籍，我一定要把他介绍给大家。喜欢拍摄风景的朋友们可不要错过了，英文版的可在美国的Amazon网站定购，中文版的可从中国的Amazon网站定购。也许你会在书局遇到也不一定。




风光的超越：摄影的审美探索
Landscape Beyond : Insights and Inspirations for Photographers



风光的内在：摄影师的洞察力
Landscape Within : Insights and Inspiration for Photographers

（书的封面被我睡觉时压到邹了，心痛.....)


风光的境界：拓展视域与风格
Developing Vision and Style : A Masterclass in Landscape Photography



风光的精要：光线的捕捉与雕
Working The Light : Landscape Photography Masterclass



《风光的超越:摄影的审美探索》全部由David用令人震撼的大画幅风光摄影作品做插图。这些彩色影像，反映了David富有思想虽凝练唯美的摄影手法，这一手法，似乎更加趋向抽象，而非描述，并总能从他的拍摄主题中，挖掘出更深层次的含义来。

在《风光的内在:摄影师的洞察力与灵感》中，David 首先探讨了什么是—或者说什么应当成为—所谓的摄影目标，以及实现这些摄影目标的具体方法。他问道：为什么摄影会满怀激情地投身于摄影创作之中？比如在面对一处山水风景时，他们会经历一番怎样的情感体验？摄影师又该采用什么方法，使自己的作品在读者的内心也能激起同样的情感反应？摄影的艺术性和原创性，其本质特性究竟在哪里？另外，这种艺术性和原创性可以得到培养和拓展吗？

继而，David 讨论了这种广为摄影师群体所体验和实验的创造力的本质，探讨了那些追求卓越的艺术作品—而非仅仅是记录现实存在的一张快照—其创作者所走过的思谋历程。David精选了一系列他自己创作的引人入胜的大画幅风光照片，借助这些照片，他对以上这些关键问题进行了深入探究，并由此创作出这本内涵丰富且深刻、超越了那种教人“如何拍”的手册型入门书的专著（当然，书中也确实包罗了大量实用的摄影建议）。David 在书中所探究的问题，而旁人少有涉及的，而且，这些问题也是为每一位追求的摄影师准备的。

David Ward的官方网站是http://www.into-the-light.com/

网站内有许多他的作品附加讲解。在此我选了几张他的作品与大家分享。图片与文字全取于http://www.into-the-light.com/　图片版权全归David Ward所有。

A Gradual Return To Nature

The blue, negative space is as important as the positive space in this image. I knew that the sand seen through the crack in this fence would turn blue on film as it was only lit by the blue sky overhead. I pre-visualised how this out of focus space would contrast with the sharply defined yellow, resinous centre of the knot. One of those occasions when it all comes right and one of my favourite images of the last few years.

Borrowed Gold

For me, reflected or borrowed light is the stuff of magic. Here, a sunlit, autumnal silver birch graces the surface of the stream with a glorious golden glow (alliteration always acceptable!)

Pure Reflection

This image was made in the early hours of the morning in the short period between sunset and sunrise. Whilst no longer bathed in continuous sunlight at this time of year this region of Norway is well within the Arctic Circle and so never gets dark.

A Trick Of Light

This image was of enormous importance to me as it opened my eyes to the possibility of making ambiguous images, images that suggest without definition. The figure is the result of the fleeting play of light rather than the solid geology, almost a pure photographic subject.

Defining Shadows

The space here is defined by the shadows as much as by the fall of light, the bands of dark across the foreground showing the shape of the sea of sand that is gradually burying this building.

Leading Lines

I was attracted by the graphic simplicity of the elements in this image. I took care to render the snow just on the edge of pure white and hoped that the subtle blue from a reflected sky would appear


Geology Mimicking Life

SimplicityBlue Pebble Taken in the shade (provided by friend Chris Andrews) on a blue sky day this shot is imbued with a lovely subtle cast. The simple combination of pebble and quartz intrusion also suggests the struggle for life.

Sunlight Through The Rain

This location was generously shared with me by my good friend Richard Childs. On the first occasion I visited the weather was dull and overcast but when I returned late in the afternoon later the same week there were a few moments of wonderful light as the setting sun shone through rain falling in the valley below.

A Blank Canvas

Painters begin with a blank canvas and work toward complexity whereas photographers begin with the ultimate complexity of the world and try to distill some simplicity. This is one of my simplest images to date; a succinct description of bracken and delicate tones in the surrounding snow bank.

Ancient Dust

I've seen many images from this location and most concentrate on the distant vista but I wanted to include the incredible foreground details from the grasses and beautifully rippled sand.

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Introducing David Ward, one of Britain's best known and most admired landscape photographers. His eye for shape and form is without equal and produces work that is startling in its clarity and intensity.

In David Ward's critically acclaimed first book, Landscape Within, he asked questions about human perception and the creative process and why photographers make images. David takes these deep explorations of photography a step further in his second book by studying what he considers to be the essential attributes of a successful landscape photograph; simplicity, ambiguity and beauty. He looks in detail at how these concepts relate to his own images and also sets them within a wider context; relating, for instance, how the notion of beauty has been viewed by artists and psychologists and discussing how, although interpretations have changed over the centuries, it remains as relevant as ever today.

David Ward sets out exactly why he feels each attribute is important to photography - how the notion of simplicity, for example, is intimately related to the reductive approach adopted by photography in contrast to the complexity involved in building up a painting from layers of pigment. He also suggests how each concept relates to the others; how simplicity and ambiguity are, in a sense, aspects of beauty. David always seeks to make his own images open to interpretation and in the final chapter, 'Questions or Answers?', he suggests that all photographers' work either poses a question or seeks to impose the photographer's viewpoint. He goes on to investigate how photography affects our interpretation of the world around us and relates this to his own practice. The book is beautifully illustrated throughout with David's stunning large-format landscape images, which reflect David's thoughtful and refined approach, tending toward abstraction rather than description and evoking deeper meaning from their subjects.

Selected text and pictures are obtain from　http://www.into-the-light.com/
All pictures are copyright under David Ward.