Chris Friel

Chris Friel

Born in 1959, Chris Friel is a British photographer noted for his abstract landscapes.  Being colour blind, Friel began his photography career after starting out as a painter shooting black and white (Parkin, 2010).  Parkin (2010) describes him as a modern day Fay Godwin.  When asked by Parkin in his 2010 interview what his epiphanic moments were he quoted membership of Flickr being particularly influential as, suddenly, thousands of unbiased  people were viewing his work and providing feedback.  Secondly, when he began shooting in colour and realising that it didn't matter if he got the colours all wrong.  In fact, when describing his technique he says that he intentionally sets the colour temperature in camera to the 'wrong' setting.  He says that his main influences were Fay Godwin and Canadian ICM photographer Frank Grisdale.  In his colour work he says that he leans towards interpretation rather than accurate representation.  He says in the interview about his technique that the only consistency is walking long distances usually in the rain.  He has, then, something in common with Richard long, Paul Gaffney and Hamish Fulton.  His output is phenomenal: 600 images in an afternoon, although he only keeps a few and he knows as soon as he has taken a picture that is 'right' and that he will keep it.  His colour work is based on long exposures and camera movement.

In a 2012 interview by Andrew Gibson he says that he was attracted to camera movement photography because of its unpredictability.  He says in this interview he uses the technique for landscapes and seascapes and, although he has tried it with people, it does not work.  He uses an ND filter and polariser in order to achieve his ideal exposure of 2-3 seconds.  Compositions are kept simple.

Chris Friel Website is HERE.

Gibson, A.S. (2012) Long Exposure Photography Interview: Chris Friel Andrew Gibson Blog: Fine Art Photographer and Writer [online] Available from: http://www.andrewsgibson.com/blog/2012/11/long-exposure-photography-interview-2-chris-friel/  [Accessed 10.2.16]

Parkin, T. (2010) Chris Friel On Landscape [online] Available from: https://www.onlandscape.co.uk/2010/12/featured-photographer-chris-friel/ Accessed [10.2.16]