Duncan Astbury, landscape and fine art photography in Scotland
Duncan Astbury, landscape and fine art photography in Scotland
His interest in photography started as a child when his grandfather gave him an old 35mm film camera, a Voigtlander Vito B, dating from 1958. He has been taking photographs for some 45 years now, during which time he has progressed from photography being a personal passion to something which is also of fine-art quality.
Originally a Computer Science graduate, Duncan has been a mature student with the Open College of the Arts (OCA / UCA), graduating with a BA (Hons) degree in Photography.
Duncan seeks to reveal insights about the beliefs, sociology and culture of Scottish people by producing photographs with associated text which reveal aspects of how the environment, both rural and urban, is altered from an otherwise natural state to a man-influenced state.
Inspiration comes from diverse influences that can range from surrealist Man Ray through to more modern influences such as Michael Levin, photographers that encourage us to see things differently. Duncan likes to make us look at things we might otherwise miss or to see the familiar in an unfamiliar way, in this way his style aims to draw upon traditional elements while being approached in a contemporary way. Digital capture allows for efficient and discreet image taking while work can be post-processed for both black & white or colour, depending on the stylistic intentions of a given project, and with perhaps a slight tendency to prefer monochrome.
In some cases the workflow extends beyond the digital and into hybrid processes, for example where a digital negative can be used for contact printing with chemically prepared papers such as those for Cyanotype to give unique hand made prints.
Although this website contains some screen based images they are typically intended to be viewed with accompanying text, for example either as exhibition prints or when presented in a book.