One of the ways we can make the landscape our own, is to photograph locations that are lesser known. Of course there is always the skill in photographing well known places in an original way to consider. But I think the best way forward, to find your own voice, is to go to places that are less obvious, or perhaps personal to ourselves.

Over the past six or seven years I have shied away from spending time on social media platforms because of the glut of images that are being uploaded each day. I do not say this with judgement of others: do as you please of course. But for me, I would much rather find out about a landscape or a location in a more organic way.

Finding out about places this way, alleviates me from being overwhelmed by photos of it. Because I am aware that the more photos I see of a place, the more difficult it is to see it ‘my’ way.

About eight years ago I sat in a hotel in San Pedro de Atacama, chatting to a couple from Brazil. It was new years eve, and they had turned up on a Harley Davidson tricycle. Tassels included :-)

During our chats, they told me about Lençóis Maranhenses national park in Brazil and about how beautiful it is. When I returned home, I decided to look it up, and like most places I try to research, I rarely see well executed landscape photos: the default seems to be standard tourist shots. This goes to confirm my view that most of the world has not been photographed well, if at all.

It took me a few years to get round to going to Lençóis Maranhenses. I never seemed to have a gap in my schedule and I felt I was taking a chance on it, because the photos I had seen of it were not that inspiring. I had to ‘see beyond’ what was being shown to me and imagine what it might be like if I tried to shoot there at sunrise and sunset.

Visiting the national park, I found it to be more photogenic than I had imagined. In fact, I thought it was amazing and captivating in a way I could have only hoped for.

This to me, is an organic approach to finding your own landscape: going with your own hunch. Taking action from a conversation, or a cue from something you saw somewhere.

But perhaps the best way to make the landscape your own, is to work on places that are personal to you. Over the years that I have been photographing Iceland, it has become a very deep and personal relationship for me. I first visited the country in 2004. It is now almost 20 years since I first went, and I am confident that my relationship with the country has only deepened as I have kept returning.

And when I have returned, I always seem to find new places that resonated with me. Such as the interior. I had a hunch for a while that it might be my kind of thing, and so I started to go into the interior about 2015.

I feel some of my best work has been made in this landscape, and in terms of ‘making it my own’, I think the landscape here has defined me as a photographer in many ways.

I feel there’s far too much following others in the landscape photography world. We are social by nature, and we tend to follow the herd. In making the landscape our own, we have to be more independent in our seeking out places. Because that is how our photography will ultimately be defined.