FRAMES Photography Podcast with Roy Fraser

In today’s episode, W. Scott Olsen talks to Roy Fraser, a minimalist landscape photographer from Dorset, United Kingdom.

You can listen to this interview using our podcast player below, but we strongly encourage you to subscribe to the podcast in your podcast app so that you don’t miss any future show episodes.

I first became aware of photography when I was at school. I was watching a school rugby match when I noticed an older boy taking pictures on the touch line with a Praktica 35mm film camera. My interest was piqued and I asked him a few questions and decided there and then that I wanted a similar camera myself!

At this time, we were living in Singapore, and twice a year, I was able to go back to Singapore in the school holidays. You can buy cameras very cheaply there, so I was able to get my parents to purchase one for me.

On returning to school I began shooting sports events and other activities and even had the school build a darkroom for other boys to use. After school I went straight into my new life of a professional photographer. I am eternally grateful to that boy on the touchline for inspiring me to become a photographer!

I tend to be drawn into the wilder aspects of the landscapes and, if at all possible, in the harshest of conditions as well! I’ve always looked forward to working in misty, foggy, wet, cold, snowy weather conditions as they seem to make the landscape in front of me look far more dramatic. I have no idea why, but I can be found out by the coast in a storm with a smile! My real preference is to capture coastal seascapes, and I’m happy as long as water can feature in my images. (Rivers and puddles count too!)

I always prefer to be out shooting rather than sat in front of my PC, and have been known to be out shooting on hot, sunny and blue sky days! My preference today is to see all the locations I visit in black and white as I feel they can convey more of the structure and design of the composition. Too often I’ve found colour fills in the gaps and doesn’t allow the landscape to express itself.

When I first started out in photography as a press photographer I was shooting exclusively in black and white. After all these years it now seems right that I return to this medium for my landscape work!