David du Chemin - "Within the Frame"

Whilst browsing in Waterstones in June, I came across a wonderful book about photography by David du Chemin titled "Within the Frame: The journey of photographic vision" (published in 2009 by New Riders - ISBN-13 978-0-321-60502-3). The subject matter clearly has an overlap with the compositional elements of the Art of Photography course but it is much more - it is an insight into how the author approaches the art and a guide to how to photograph people and places from other cultures. And it has some fantastic photographs!



In his portraits, he seems to go the extra mile in forming a relationship with those he wishes to photograph with the result that they are just stunning. In his street scenes and landscapes, he has such a wonderful eye for detail and for capturing 'the' image - often by great persistence. Above all, throughout all his shots, is an incredible use of colour which almost jumps out of the page.

There are so many photographs that I love in this book, and each has a story to go with it. Probably my favourite is not one of the portraits but a shot taken at the Taj Mahal. Du Chemin talks about the challenge of shooting iconic places with fresh eyes and describes his first visit to the Taj Mahal. He found the experience disappointing as he felt that it was now only a tourist attraction of a former glory. Having taken the 'iconic' shot of the Taj Mahal in the reflecting pool he then walked about, finding his way into the nearby Mosque where he saw a worker sweeping the floor. He took a photograph from within the mosque, with the Taj Mahal framed by the door of the mosque and the sweeper in the foreground (Page 181). As du Chemin says "it perfectly expressed my feelings about it (the Taj Mahal) being a dusty monument now just kept clean for the tourists".

This book is truly inspirational and, at the same time very humbling, as every photograph shows what the art can achieve and how much novices, such as myself, have to learn, even if we had du Chemin's vision.