David Winston

Photographer David Winston shares about his passion for photography and the painterly quality he brings to his nighttime photographs of Venice.

Can you talk about when you first became interested in photography?

I got my first camera when I was about 8 and have been taking photos ever since. My father constantly had his camera with him and we used to complain bitterly, but now we are grateful for the legacy he left behind and I am especially grateful for the passion he passed onto me.

The obvious answer is the ability to freeze time, to save memories, preserve lost voices and lost worlds. But there is so much more to it than that. What I find the most challenging and the most interesting about the medium is that it is a totally objective observer and the art is to bend it to our will, to make the camera show what is in our mind’s eye when we press the shutter, to capture the human filter that sees the world in a way that is subjective and unique to each of us.

Can you elaborate on blending the digital and analogue image-making process?

I have no shame in using modern technology where it serves my purpose. Certainly, digital photography saves much time and expense when compared to the analogue process. A great advantage of the digital process for me is the making of negatives. The developing processes I use all require full size contact negatives, which in some cases can be 18 x 24 “ and to produce those digitally is relatively quick. Once I have the negative produced, I work backwards from the 21st Century to the early 19th, using the old laborious early photographic printing processes.

I don’t do a lot of digital manipulation of images on the computer, as I find digitally-manipulated images soulless. I use a lot of techniques producing the image directly in camera in order to get the image I see in my mind -- to almost trick the camera, in a way.

I remember my father being scandalised when I took the lens off my Nikon and used a toilet roll tube to turn it into a pinhole camera.

What ideas are you exploring in your work?

I am trying to produce an image that is what I see in my head, to apply the human filters: emotion, memory and above all, to tell a story. The best way to describe this is by example. I spend a lot of time wandering with my camera, taking in images, storing them in my head, and when I get home at the end of the day, all the images are floating in my mind and they tumble out. What I see in my mind’s eye is very different from an exact image: it may be a flash of colour or a strong graphic shape, or even a sound or just a feeling. That is what I want my photographs to portray and to induce the same reaction in those who see them.

I rely a lot on serendipity and the use of the old photographic processes makes us beholden to that. They are so inexact, full of infinite variations in colour and texture and so unpredictable. I am always making mistakes and discoveries through those mistakes.

***Acqua Alta, photograph by David Winston***

I am looking to explore photography in a more painterly way. Even from the start this happens, because the chemicals must be painted onto the paper with a brush. My two favourite processes are cyanotype and gum bichromate. Cyanotype produces a blue image only, but this can be magical and varied considerably by the use of different papers or altering the combination of chemicals. It can have a wonderful luminosity. Gum Bichromate is probably the most painterly of all the processes in that it combines photosensitive chemicals with watercolour pigments and the subtleties and variations are endless. It also can be layered over other processes such as cyanotype. Sometimes I feel like an alchemist.

I also work a lot with multiple exposure. I want to escape one of the perceived limitations of photography, which is that it is a single moment in time. There is a lot of serendipity involved in this technique and the random movements mean that what is being photographed makes its own unique contribution to the outcome. It becomes a story and feels like a remembered image of an experience, not just a frozen second.

I almost never use flash and prefer to work in low light, to capture a sense of the light within rather than the light on the surface.

Can you talk about the draw of Venice and what a typical day looks like for you there with your camera?

I never tire of wandering in that city, especially the back streets late at night. I often stay inside all day, working in the darkroom, only to emerge at dusk. There is a particular magic to the city at night, when it retreats back into itself---the dimly lit doorways, the lighted windows, the sound of the water lapping against the walls of the canals, like the breath of the city. I feel utterly safe there, in a way I wouldn’t in most cities.

What draws me to the place is what has drawn so many artists before me: the pursuit of beauty. This improbable city could never have been built in this improbable place if those who created it did not have a vision of beauty in their minds, and that vision has been a gift for generations to come.

There is a lot of discussion about how tourism is destroying the city and yes, that is a danger -- she is a woman whose singular beauty could also be her downfall. I wish though, that I could go there at the moment. My friends describe the sadness of the empty city, but also the magnificence of her beauty to be observed without interference. But also, I would say that when you live there, speak the language, have friends, it becomes a different place. The Venetians have an expression for a way of getting around the city while avoiding the throngs of tourists and it translates as ‘between the leaves’.

Many would think that it is an easy place to photograph, but I would actually say it is one of the most difficult places of all. It is easy to take a cliché photo of a beautiful woman, but to capture her essence, mystery and heart, is not so easy…

Who are your greatest influences?

Two photographers I greatly admire are the American, Saul Leiter and the 19thc. French photographer Robert Demachy. Saul Leiter was a master at catching a moment in a very individual and emotional way. His pictures are often out of focus or viewed through a window, or simply catch a chance juxtaposition. They are full of humanity. Robert Demachy was a master at the Gum Bichromate process, using the technique in an incredibly painterly way.

Another big influence for me is Japanese woodblock prints. There is a similarity to the gum bichromate process, using a subtle layering of different colours and textures. I particularly admire the work of Kawase Hasui. He did many night-time images, using a very subdued and dark colour palette, with maybe just the brightness of a lantern or lighted window here and there. They are brave and wonderfully evocative images.

Which artists you are loving right now?

Stefania Boiano. @stefie.art. I remember when I first encountered her work at Roys Art Fair. It stopped me dead in my tracks and I said to her: ‘how did you manage to paint what is in my head?’

Resi Girardello @resigiradello. Resi is an Italian artist living in Venice and she makes the most extraordinary woven sculptures using wire and textile.

Nafiseh Tabatabaei @nafiseh.tabatabaei. Nafiseh is an Iranian artist who makes the most extraordinary masks. I am a great admirer of the Venetian Carnevale masks, but these are in a world of their own.

***Nocturne, Venezia, photograph by David Winston***

What is the best advice you have received as an artist?

Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Don’t expect everyone to understand or even like your work. Don’t expect to get rich.

What is the most memorable thing someone has said about your work?

The writer, Michelle Lovric, who writes many novels which take place in Venice has said that I do with photographs what she does with words. Since I love her words, I take that as great praise.

The other was that someone said it was ‘genius’, but then, we all want to hear that….

What are you working on now?

A lot of plans have been put on hold because of the pandemic, or not only put on hold, but cancelled altogether.

Sometimes, it is hard to keep motivated, but then there is a sudden breakthrough or discovery and I am off and running again.

At the moment, there is a plan to participate in Roys Art Fair scheduled for May and hopefully it will happen.

Describe your dream project.

I have always been a dream maker…

One would be to produce a book of my Venice images, combined with words.

The other would be to do another solo exhibition in Venice.

And yet one more is to photograph the Golden Eagle Festival in Mongolia.

Follow David Winston on Instagram @David.Winston.Photography.