Photography : Foundation Course

This is a teaching book aimed at those entering art college, or undertaking a short course.

It covers a background of history and technique, with step by step guides in camera handling, both film and digital formats, composition and aesthetic issues, processing and printing. The themes and structure of the book are based on my experience of teaching, and include experimental work. There are a series of 'Masterclasses' at the end, including pinhole, fine printing, still life, and wildlife on safari. I have found it very useful to show students, as they often ask for a good introductory book. The feedback on the book has been very good, not least from students and other staff, and the layout appears fresh and lively. The aim was to simplify important points, and make difficult ideas accessible. Technical information and aesthetic issues are given equal importance. Digital techniques are included where possible, but these will inevitably date. Research was done on the history of photography, and on digital techniques, whereas the film or traditional approach was well known to me. Much work was done with the designer on the structure and layout, to present the ideas in an easy to follow, and accessible way. I used a variety of images that I had in my archive, even going back to college days at LCP. I took many colour images for the book on a digital SLR which was my first serious use of a digital camera.

Peter Cattrell

Research Interests
Landscape photography
Portrait photography
Analogue archival and fine printing to
museum and gallery standard
Digital media

Current Research

With an interest in literature and history, my creative work in photography is interpretations of the landscape of Europe, informed by historical research, and connected to themes of identity, association, and personal loss. I have produced a successful touring exhibition on the landscape of the Great War, which I visited again in 2006, and produced some more work. I envisage a solo publication to coincide with the 100th anniversary in 2016. The approach is to show the land as a memorial in itself, with the land still showing scars of the conflict, but also a regeneration of the land to farming. The cutting of a maze crop, or lines of winter stubble where men were cut down by rifle fire, or mine craters deeply moulding the land are metaphors with a personal sense of place. This show includes personal memorabilia and letters to juxtapose the contemporary photographs.

I have been researching a project on the French Huguenots who came to England to avoid persecution in 1700, and intend to exhibit this work in 2009. This relates to my ancestors the Roubels, from Ruffec in the Charente Maritime region of France, who came to Westminster in London. The project relates to my interest in the ideas of personal identity, and also of a displaced people - themes that I have seen recurring whilst degree teaching at the UoAL, notably with students of Jewish, or African descent. An Australian genealogist has published a book on the Roubel family, and I am using this as a basis for the work, as well as linking up with archives and museums in London.

Working in black and white and recently in colour, I am well known for fine printing my own, and other photographers work. I printed an exhibition at the darkrooms of the Imperial War Museum from glass plate negatives taken in Scotland in 1914 - 18, of women working doing traditionally 'men's jobs' in factories and industry. This was exhibited in Edinburgh at the National Portrait gallery.

I am also continuing to print on silver paper to present galleries with recent landscape work. Currently I am experimenting with digital forms of capture and printing, as many companies have stopped producing silver based paper. I am doing high resolution scanning of my career archive of creative work on film, and I have been linking up with Shelley Rose the digital printing technician at CSM.

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