Black Dots

OpenWalls Arles: Nicholas White explains the relationship between his camera and his surroundings

Nicholas White is based on Dartmoor National Park, where he pursues projects that examine our relationship with our landscape, and the way we interact with our natural spaces. Since graduating from Plymouth College of Art several years ago, Nicholas’ work has been featured in a number of publications, including British Journal of Photography. He has been commended as Landscape Photographer of the Year, has won positions on two Magnum Photos workshops, and has been shortlisted for the World Photography Organisation ZEISS Photography Award for his project ‘Black Dots’. A portrait from the project has also been shortlisted for this year’s Portrait of Britain exhibition. Nicholas’ interest in nature informs all of his work, taking him away from his familiar surroundings, into bothies dotted around the UK, and now to the Southern Carpathian Mountains of Romania, where he is documenting a new European Wilderness Reserve. We spoke to Nicholas about his work away from home, in light of our OpenWalls theme, ‘Home & Away’. How did you get into photography and how has your background influenced your approach? All of my …

2019-07-12T12:18:08+01:00

Nicholas JR White on Britain’s bothies

Gemma Padley

The first night he spent in a bothy, a primitive and remote man-made shelter, Nicholas JR White witnessed a sight he would not forget in a hurry. He and a friend had arrived at Warnscale Head in the Lake District and were talking about the project that would become Black Dots – now a book published by Another Place Press – when they looked out of the window and saw the Northern Lights stretching far into the distance. “We had the whole of the fells to ourselves and sat outside with beers, just watching,” says White. “That was the first night of the project and it was a really good start. The next day I got the first image that would make it into the series.” Little did White know then that this would be the first of many nights spent in bothies across Scotland, Wales and northern England over the following three years. He first had the idea to make a project about these former crofters’ cottages and farmers’ huts, nestled deep in the …

2018-03-15T12:04:27+01:00