Featured Photographer – Alister Benn

For this installment of our Featured Photographer series I decided to turn the tables on my friend, Alister Benn, and interview him. Alister and I first met a few years ago when he interviewed me for a podcast. Since then I have been an avid fan and follower. His work spans the globe, from his native Scotland to the Himalayas, and features a consistent and deliberate mood of primordial rawness and mystery. Perhaps just as impressive as his body of photographic work is the long list of interests, projects and ventures he participates in, from environmental activism and teaching to writing and music. In 2011 Alister and his wife JuanLi Sun founded the regarded nature photo site, WhyTake.net, with Rafael Rojas and Anca Minican. In September he will be presenting at the Scottish Nature Photography Festival and in the fall he will be leading a photographic journey to the Mt. Everest region with Oregon photographer, Marc Adamus. His instructional books on photographing seascapes and the night sky are works of art in their own right. I hope you enjoy reading our conversation and getting to see some of Alister’s photographs.

Give us some background into your history with photography.

I had my first SLR when I was about 13 or so and was always attracted to more abstract subjects, and birds of course. I had no idea about exposures, but picked up a few tips from my older brothers.

It wasn’t until 2003 that I had the time to invest and I bought a Canon 10D for shooting birds in the rainforests of Malaysia, where we lived at the time. Landscapes began on a trip to Canada the following year and my love of night photography started then and more or less drove my development for the next decade. I stopped photographing birds in 2007 as it had ruined birding for me, and now I am very happy to watch them without the need to make an image.

I went full time pro in 2009 and am incredibly grateful to make a living doing what I love.

From one landscape photographer to another, what is it about photographing the landscape that calls to you?

I can’t paint! But have a desperate need to say things about what I see in the landscape. For me it is a fundamental need to be expressive. As I get older, my wife Juanli and I are more reclusive and photography allows me to articulate myself without the boundaries or constraints of language or location.

Nature has a very quiet voice and can struggle to be heard under the clamor of louder, more aggressive screaming. I like to add the weight of my passion to that voice and hopefully it allows people to hear those whispers clearer and adjust their lifestyles accordingly.

You are from Scotland, which I envy. In just a few sentences describe the Scottish landscape to us through the eyes of a landscape photographer and a native. What has it taught you as an artist?

Yes, everybody has a little Scottish in them! 🙂 I guess most people have a real love and connection with their home countries. My relationship with home is odd, as I left it when I was 23 after university and didn’t go back to live there until 2013, at the age of 47. I had never photographed it, and that sense of connection and discovery was really powerful for me.

Scotland is mostly a wild and sparsely populated place, with the majority of the 5 million residents living within a narrow lowland belt between the major cities. The rest of it is hills, forests, heather, lochs and bogs! The coastline is exquisite, and I am constantly finding new coves and hidden stretches as my explorations continues.

I cannot separate the landscape from my perceptions of what it means to be a Scot; the history, our culture and our passions. The landscape stretches before me both into the past and into the future.

I have only felt comfortable with calling myself an artist since earlier this year, until then I called myself an expressive landscape photographer. There is a subtle shift, but profound for me. Scotland did that, a full on immersion into the landscape and only making images when I have something to say.

In addition to your homeland, you have spent time traveling, living and photographing many parts of the world: China, Spain, Canada, Iceland to name a few. Where do you feel you have done your best work? Do you get more inspiration from exploring new places or from returning to places familiar?

Interestingly I am writing this from Iceland, where I have just finished a private workshop for a lovely couple from Canada. I’d say my best work stretches across the globe, from all the places you mention above. There are images I am quite proud of, but I think, like many, I am usually most connected with my most recent images.

I used to adhere very much to the familiarity methodology, especially where planning certain images was concerned: You know, moon coming up there, Milky Way there etc. now, less so, I am less of a weather chaser and far happier making appropriate images dictated by the now and the moment. For people traveling great distances to shoot iconic landscapes, managing those weather expectations is the hardest thing. I smile often here on Iceland when other photographers say things like “I was hoping for some clouds!”

Your images are dramatic and moody and have a consistent voice and feel. How would you describe photographic vision that guides your body of work?

As I mature (still waiting for adulthood!) – I feel much more compelled to inject myself into my work. It began as a conscious thing, not to shoot like anybody else, to try, whenever possible, to be Alister. Now, it is subliminal and just happens, I think I have found my style and my voice.

Basically, what I am saying is this. The planet is in a dark and desperate state, extinctions, deforestations, an ever increasing desire for sustainable growth – but despite all that pessimism, I feel an innate sense of hope. So, my images tend to be dark and ominous, but with a glimmer of radiance that is my beacon of optimism.

You are notorious in photography circles for your energy, vision and ability to work on several projects simultaneously. You collaborate with other photographers, lead tours, teach, write books and are also a talented musician. What current and future projects do you have in the works?

Wow, I didn’t realize all that! After nearly 5 years of work we are closing the whytake.net website. It’s been a labor of love, but demands a lot of our time and creative energy. I know that my personal work and Available Light Images have suffered because of that demand.

Juanli and I are currently excited by our own personal development, our continued exploration of the Scottish landscape and our workshops/tours. I truly love teaching, watching the lights go on in people’s eyes as they make that realization that they can shoot like themselves.

I am excited that my best images are in the future and not in the past, I am excited by photographing anonymous stretches of the Scottish coastline that are not all over social media!

See more of Alister’s Fine Art Prints – alisterbenn.com
Tours, workshops & eBooks – availablelightimages.com
Follow Alister on Facebook