The discussion held yesterday (Thursday) touched upon the elements needed for photographers to successfully turn the art of travelling and photographing
some of the world’s most desirable places into a profitable career.
Introducing the discussion was photographer Chris Coe, who was joined by Timothy Allen and Philip Lee Harvey. Elia Locardi, who was unable to attend in person, sent a video detailing his work for the audience to watch.
Kicking off the discussion, Allen and Harvey described how they became travel photographers. Allen started as a news photographer in London, later swapping the confines of the newsroom and England’s capital city streets for the great outdoors, in what he admitted “was an easy route into the world of travel photography” to become, as he called himself “a documentary photographer who travels”.
For Harvey, meanwhile, travel had always been an integral part of who he is. “First and foremost I wanted to be a photographer,” he says. “But I also wanted adventure and the two together for me go hand in hand.”
Another photographer who is certainly living his very own adventure of a lifetime is Locardi. Constantly travelling around the world, he has no fixed abode, calling home “Location Independent”.
For Locardi, life is a series of actions and decisions. “You grab hold of the things that catch your eye, the things you love and the things you want, need or desire. But at other times, it’s about letting go, pushing past the things you think you need to find what it is you actually need. In the end, we only regret the chances we didn’t take.” he says.
While each of the three photographers has a different approach to his art, they all share one important quality: passion. It is the passion to go that extra mile to capture the perfect light; the passion to stay up long into the night to get that perfect shot; the passion to record their own piece of narrative.
On what drives that passion, Harvey said it is inbuilt and therefore necessitates that everyone trust their own instincts. “You must make all the decisions. Don’t let your camera decide. It’s a machine. It’s working on an average. We don’t ever want average,” Harvey concluded.
As the photographer for the BBC series Human Planet, Allen has captured some of the world’s most incredible human stories in some of the world’s most incredible and remote places, such as 19,000ft up the Himalayas and 40 metres beneath the South China Sea.
Locardi is an American Photographer specialising in travel, landscape and aerial photography, best known for recreating bold colourful images of some of the world’s most renowned landscapes.
Harvey, meanwhile, is a British photographer who has worked all over the world, including the Antarctica and Sahara desert. He believes that photography should convey the emotion of places and people, rather than functioning simply as a descriptive guide.
During Xposure, visitors can view exhibitions by both Allen and Harvey, with Allen displaying a collection of limited edition and signed prints, and Harvey select images from his travels. The Festival runs until Saturday, November 24. General admission is free.
