Profile Doug Chinnery on print We talk to the pro photographer about the importance of physical prints in a digital age and why choosing the right paper can make all the difference to your images
PRO PHOTOGRAPHER DOUG CHINNERY
Photography News: How did you get started in photography? Doug Chinnery: I was given a Kodak Brownie by my grandparents when I was eight years old. Later, my stepfather gave me a Russian TLR Lubitel shooting 120 roll film, and showed me how to use it. I got the bug. I’ve been a full time professional photographer for 13 years, after spending four years building up the business part-time. Along with my own photography business, I lead photography tours and workshops with my business partner, Valda Bailey. Photography News: Howwould you explain your photography in terms of genre and style? Doug Chinnery: Originally, my main genre was landscape and outdoor photography, but seven years ago I found myself becoming very disenchanted with the whole process of making images so similar to every other photographer. Then, I stumbled upon, by chance, Chris Friel’s work (see cfriel.com). This was a real epiphany for me - I hadn’t realised just what a camera was capable of if you used it in ways you weren’t supposed to. It sounds dramatic, but that day changed my life. Photography News: In the digital age, do you think that it's
still important to produce prints of your photographs? Doug Chinnery: It seems a great pity to me that we are making more images than ever before and yet so many never become fully realised as prints. It’s worrying that in the future, there may come a time when so many of these precious images could be lost, simply because technology will advance and change. Those ‘ones and zeros’ currently representing images on hard drives will simply vanish or be ploughed into a landfill. It will be such a tragedy. Yet,
the photographs our parents took, with equipment which was far less sophisticated, still live on in the biscuit tins of the world. Yes, printed images aren’t eternal any more than digital images are – but being tangible and physical, at least we can see what they are, and we have numerous ways of preserving them. Somehow, having a physical print now shows us we have something worth preserving. Photography News: Does printing help you improve your
30 Photography News | Issue 72
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