John Lowings

John Lowings is a successful photographer who published a book of poetry with his photography. He came in to talk to us about how he began in photography and the stages he took to create the book. He also talked us through his photographs and the story behind them. His work is mainly black and white photography of landscapes in Ireland. He used 35mm film for most of his work and developed them by hand, using a DSLR camera did not appeal to Lowings when they became popular so he stuck to what he knew. He discussed the problems that he encountered by just using film, such as the fact there is only a limited amount of shots on a film so he had to be very aware of what he was taking an image of. The most important piece of equipment that he uses is a tripod, as he could not risk the image being shakey because of the limited amount of pictures he could take. This is also important as he takes many of his images during the night which involves a slow shutter speed which could result in camera shake if not stable. In my opinion i prefer the images that have been used in the book of the landscapes, as the more recent images of buildings and train lines are not as emotional and have less of a story behind them. He used colored inks on some of his images in inject colour into certain elements such as flowers. I was unaware of this technique and i think it worked well with his images but i still prefer his moody images of the sea and the land. He has not named his photography so addresses them by the date and location they were taken.
This image of farmers land by the sea was my favorite image. I did not understand it at first but when Lowings explained the meaning behind the photograph, pointed out small details and explained the effort put into capturing the image, I understood the composition.


The main reason John Lowings came to talk to us is to explain how he goes about exhibiting his work. He explained that funding was the most important procedure in creating an exhibit and gave us ideas as to how to hold a successful exhibition on a small amount of money by borrowing from shops in exchange for advertising their company.