PHOTOGRAPHER Philip Clarke
The flight of the fulmar is said to have been the inspiration for Mitchell’s design of the Spitfire, surely the most beautiful aircraft ever produced.
The fulmar has a strong social sense with its own kind, but equally a powerful delight in performance for other species. They delight in giving false trails, and then sweeping over one’s head from behind.
These photographs show how flight depends on the synchronisation of tiny details, and how each movement is sculpted to optimise control.
Philip Clarke is a traditionalist with traditional darkroom skills. “Why exhaust yourself in front of a screen, when you can have the ecstasy of building an individual image from a combination of light and salts. There is really no contest.”
Philip’s next exhibition in Oriel y Parc is Company of Souls 2 with Geoff Yeomans. His part is an oblique study of how belief is made manifest with particular relationship to St. David’s Cathedral.
