Paul Parin

Photography has offered me a truly exciting and rewarding journey over the past 20 or so years. The opportunity to travel throughout Western Australia and increasingly further afield to indulge in my chosen craft is truly a privilege I will always cherish. Western Australia in particular as my broad geographic backyard is an artists pallet of spectacular opportunity and adventure and a landscape breathtaking in its dramatic diversity. Boundless horizons of blue, sky and ocean, define boldly the ancient lands they frame. Geological rock formations shaped and sculpted by billions of years of extreme environmental conditions offer amazing texture, shape and colour. The majesty and scale of a 50 metre tall karri tree that contrasts so strikingly against the tactile subtlety of a fungi colony living at its base. Western Australian landscape is about contrasts in the extreme. The way a somewhat unexpected beauty juxtaposes against the harsh reality of an unforgiving landscape. The grandeur of scale so great and at times so overwhelming that the fineness of more intricate and delicate detail can easily be overlooked.

Over time my photography has allowed me to develop a deeper appreciation of nature’s intrinsic design and given me the insight to stop and look a little more closely; to be patient, to feel out an image and allow the landscape to reveal itself to me. It is something that can’t be rushed by busy timetables and the pace of modern life and indeed it is nice to be able to take the time out to slow down a little.

Inspiration is never too far away. Moments of magic through combinations of light, texture, shape and form often reveal themselves at best in moments of spontaneity. More often though the quest for a particular image can be a lengthy exercise of considered process. Good fortune and lady luck certainly play a part but developing the understanding and skills that allow you to take that chance comes through awareness, learned experience and perhaps most significantly, perseverance.

At the end of a very long day my photography allows me periods of time to be simply ‘out there’. I cherish this time away from the hurly burly of city life to be out feeling, first hand, the elements of nature. I’m addicted to the challenge and adventure of my photographic quest and the associated disciplines it instills. The inevitable periods of solitude are mostly a cathartic process that allows me the space for introspective growth and the time to develop and refine my craft.

Thankyou for taking the time to view my work. I hope you can feel and relate a little about the sense of place and the moment of time the image was created and the enjoyment and satisfaction I felt whilst being there.