This volume illustrates the scope of Milan's approach to landscape, ranging from an eye for the tiniest details of plants, buildings or topography, to an exceptional perspicacity in capturing the great expanse of Nature's finest canvasses. His landscape work has accordingly drawn him to the magical intensity of an English forest, to the stark, otherworldly beauty of the Canaries' most striking volcanic vistas, to the lush richness of Scottish Highland scenery. Scotland also offered opportunities for recording the splendour of coastal waters in unusual repose, with northern light revealing exquisite maritime hues.
In some images, Milan captures the more conventional beauty of charming scenery: in his four images of Croham Hurst Woods (1976) long, night-time exposures give an English woodland landscape an almost magical charm. By contrast, we see the grandeur the almost barren, volcanic terrain of the Canaries, where the eye feasts not on sumptuous vegetation but on the remarkable form and colour of once superheated rocks, sometimes focussing on native plant life as it struggles to take hold amongst lunar landscapes.
In the light of mankind's enterprise to manage, manipulate, exploit and ultimately destroy most of the planet's richest natural environments, Milan has striven, in this compendium of some of his most striking nature photography, to capture the resplendent harmony of the natural world, celebrating all that yet remains unspoiled by the destructive attentions of humankind.
The Photographer, Milan Svanderlik, is a veteran observer of the extraordinary diversity and beauty of nature, people and life in general. Milan Svanderlik Photography: Landscapes, comprising photographs taken from 1976 to 2019, is the second of three volumes illustrating his work. Over the years, Milan's highly original and well-regarded photographs have been exhibited in a number of art galleries, both here in London and 'over the pond, in New York.
