Shaped by the sea
theo bosboom spent three years photographing europe’s Atlantic coast for his new book. he tells Keith Wilson why he took the bold step of inviting another photographer to edit it
Theo Bosboom speaks to Keith Wilson about his three years photographing Europe’s Atlantic coast
Photographers are often described as the worst editors of their own work, and yet the very nature of this singular creative process makes it difficult to do otherwise. Editing images is as vital to the success of a photographer’s portfolio as the composing of the images themselves, so when it comes to choosing photos for an exhibition or book, what is the alternative to you, the photographer, doing it all yourself? It was a question the award-winning landscape photographer Theo Bosboom tried to address when working on his new book, Shaped by the Sea.
Three years in the making and the culmination of travelling the length of Europe’s Atlantic coastline from Portugal to Iceland, via Spain, France, Ireland and the Outer Hebrides, Theo’s latest book is a sumptuously printed hardback of sweeping seascapes and nuanced close-ups. Quite rightly, it is a book that fills him with enormous satisfaction. ‘It’s probably the project I worked on with the most passion and the most pleasure,’ he reflects. Customer feedback since the book’s publication in October appears to justify his own verdict, but Theo is also thankful because it validates his decision to work closely with another photographer on the final edit and layout. That photographer was Sandra Bartocha, one of the most influential practitioners in
contemporary European landscape and nature photography.
Emotional attachment
‘Sandra and I were already friends and it was actually by accident that I thought about her as editor for the book,’ he says. ‘I once showed her some early images from the project, and she was very enthusiastic and gave me some good advice.’ Seeking friendly advice is one thing, but asking a fellow photographer to take on the commanding roles of both editor and designer of a book of your own images is a leap of faith. But, unlike most photographers, Bartocha already had the necessary credentials to be Theo’s editor. He explains: ‘Sandra is also editor of the magazine for GDT (the German Society of Nature Photographers) and she does a great job there, so why not co-operate? That’s how we started working. She was important because editors are not as emotionally attached to the images as photographers, so sometimes they can be very direct but always honest.’
Of course, before Theo could bear the brunt of Bartocha’s honesty, he had to be satisfied within himself that the project photographs were a complete and aesthetically pleasing representation of the Atlantic’s vast and volatile European shores. ‘One of the main challenges was to make a book that would do justice to the variety of coastlines and beaches along the Atlantic coast,’ he says. ‘I took a lot of advice from local photographers, read and studied on the internet, but sometimes I was just going out of the blue somewhere when I felt it could be interesting.’
New locations
Theo is reluctant to reveal the locations of many of the beaches and viewpoints featured in Shaped by the Sea, although he concedes some will be immediately familiar to most photographers. ‘Iceland is in, and a very popular place like The Giant’s Causeway is in,’ he says, ‘ but I also tried to find locations that have not been photographed to death. The discovery part of the project was one of the fun parts. Sometimes, I found
beaches that are hardly on the map, and haven’t been photographed at all, and turned out to be absolutely wonderful. It was a very pleasant surprise that you don’t have to go to Lofoten or to Iceland to find wild nature on the coast, and that there is still so much to discover.’
To prevent lesser-known locations from becoming crowded with tripods in the wake of his book, Theo wasn’t too specific in his captions about the locations. He explains: ‘I give a general indication, such as “northern Norway” or “west Ireland”, because I don’t want to be the one that spoils beaches that up until now have been pleasantly quiet. Of course, the fact I have published these images will have an effect, but I don’t want to make it too easy for others to repeat them. I also want to invite every photographer to make their own discoveries.’
Even when asked to reveal his favourite location, Theo remains resolutely vague: ‘ The west and southwest of Portugal is extremely wild and extremely beautiful. I always thought of Portugal as some boring Mediterranean beach location, but it was the place where I got most wet and had my scariest moments, especially in the winter. The sea is very unpredictable.’
Backup camera
Such unpredictability, and the dowsings of sea spray, proved to be a true test of the durability of his kit. However, to maintain unhindered handling, Theo eschewed the usual precautions of waterproof housings and rain sleeves, dealing with the consequences later. He reveals: ‘After a session, I would clean my gear with a clean water cloth and dry it and I would take my tripod into the shower to try to wash out the sand and salt, but still there has been some damage. Some of the functions on my camera don’t work any more. I can’t film with it any more because it’s just rusted. I also lost one tripod – within one year it was totally useless.’
No expense was spared for this project: his first-choice camera was the 50MP Canon EOS 5DSR, for the detail it renders, while his backup
Shaped by the Sea, 176 pages, with 111 images, 30x24cm, hardback. Published by DDB Publishers was the EOS 80D. ‘Sometimes when you photograph waves or birds on the coast, it’s nice if you can make 10 frames per second, which obviously isn’t possible with the 5DSR, and its autofocus isn’t that quick, so the 80D is a good option.’
His lenses included the 24-70mm f/2.8 and 70-200mm f/2.8, as well as a 100mm macro for close-ups of seaweed, rock strata and shells. In
addition, Theo turned to the Laowa 15mm wideangle macro. ‘It allows you to get very close to things like limpets and still include part of the landscape because it is 15mm and life-size. It’s difficult to work with, but you get some interesting shots.’
Mixing black & white
Once Theo was satisfied his photographic work was done, it was time to decide which images to include. Over the three years, he had taken thousands of images, but only 112 made the finished book. It wasn’t just a case of convincing himself, but also persuading Sandra, too. ‘Sometimes, I had to fight for some images or ideas, but together I think we found a very good mix between her professional advice and feeling for aesthetics and the images that could tell a story, and on the other hand my own ideas and preferences for the book.’
As with his previous books, Shaped by the Sea contains a mixture of colour and black & white landscapes. Although he expresses an overall preference for colour, Theo also recognises that some of his images deliver greater impact when converted to black & white. However, when it came to sequencing the mixture of colour and black & white images in the book, it was Bartocha who took the lead. ‘I wanted a small number of black & white images to be part of the project and integrating them in the chapters in the right place without it feeling unnatural was quite a challenge,’ he says. ‘Sandra did most of the work there. We did the image selection and the sequencing of the images together. Usually, I made the first draft and then she would come with something quite different, sometimes a little bit different, so it was a process of combining our thoughts and discussing it.’
Editing the images was not a task they could do remotely, either – their homes being in Arnhem and Potsdam, respectively – so they chose the city of Hannover, roughly halfway between the two, as the rendezvous for making these key decisions. ‘We met a couple of times in Hannover and there we sat the whole day with the laptop and tried to make the perfect flow, which was hard work,’ he says. ‘In the end, we both felt very comfortable with the order of the images and also the placement of the black & whites. Sometimes, Sandra did magic things there.’
New-found clarity
So, with the book now printed, is he happy with the result? ‘It’s always hard to judge your own work, but I do have a feeling that this is my best body of work,’ he replies. Compared to his previous books, Theo believes there is a much stronger connection between all the images across the 176 pages of Shaped by the Sea. ‘ There’s a clearer line and clearer theme in it,’ he says. ‘What I hear from others, too, is that they feel I grew as a photographer and that they can see this in this book.’ And the key lesson he has learned from asking Bartocha to edit his work? ‘I realise it’s so necessary to get another person who’s not emotionally involved with the pictures and has a good feeling for design and the flow of pictures. That’s priceless, I think.’