Inspirational British photographer and teacher John Blakemore died this week at the age of 88.
John Blakemore was known for his landscape and nature photographs, particularly his use of long exposure techniques. He creatively used multiple exposures in his work, sometimes capturing as many as 50 shots an hour to capture the progression of time in nature.
British Center of Photography describes Blakemore, who was entirely self-taught, was hailed as “one of the foremost photographers of landscape and nature in the world”, noting his incredible control over tone and exposure.
Video interview below, attracted by light Written by James Hyman, captures much of what makes Blakemore and his work extraordinary.
Dr Michael Pritchard of The Royal Photographic Society has described Blakemore’s work as “beautiful, carefully executed and thoughtful”. till BBC,
“John was no diva,” says Blakemore’s friend and colleague Paul Hill. “He was a very charming man who was very generous with his time. His gentleness, his understanding, his intelligence were of a very high order.”
Blakemore spent decades teaching art and photography, including formal classes, workshops and media at Derby College of Art. In 2001, Blakemore became Emeritus Professor of Photography at the University of Derby.
Blakemore’s award-winning photography was displayed in more than 25 solo exhibitions over six decades. He won the 1992 Fox Talbot Prize for Photography and was named an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society in 1998.
The photographer published several books over his long career, including inscape (1991), steady gaze (1994), John Blakemore’s Black and White Photography Workshop (2005), and John Blakemore Photographs 1955-2010 (2011).
John Blakemore will be remembered for his incredible portfolio of nature, still life and documentary photography, and for his lasting influence on the generations of photographers he taught.
“Through his exhibitions and books, his work reached a wide audience,” says Dr. Pritchard. “His legacy is his own photography, but also the students he taught and who now work to his exacting standards and teach in their own right.”
“I have enjoyed it, it is important to me. Blakemore concluded in an interview in 2023, “And my personal life has always been ridiculous to me, photography has been a sort of conscience through it.” And so (photography) has been very important to me and I’ve worked very hard at it and I’ve enjoyed it.”
“But at the end of the day, there are a lot of pieces of paper in the boxes,” Blakemore said with a laugh, smiling broadly. “And it’s a fitting ending, isn’t it?”
Image Credit: The featured image is a screenshot James Hyman’s great video interview with John Blakemore In 2023, which can be seen in full above.
