About Craig McMaster

The Photographer

Craig McMaster is a professional photographer based in Biggar, Scotland. He operates a successful photographic practice mainly serving a variety of architectural and engineering type clients within the UK construction industry. His photographs of “The Built Environment” regularly appear in a variety of technical journals for advertising and editorial use.

In addition to his Built Environment Photography, Craig dedicates a significant amount of time to photographing the landscape of his native Scotland. Working almost exclusively with large format equipment Craig endeavours to capture the rugged and enigmatic character of the Scottish landscape.

The Images

The images are not simply black and white photographs of Scotland; perhaps they are better described as strong emotional images inspired by the landscape of Scotland. The captured image does not actually exist in reality – the sky is not black and the trees are not shades of grey. To capture a scene using black and white photography immediately removes that scene from reality. To adjust that image further using photographic techniques removes that scene still further from reality.

Craig’s monochromatic images therefore attempt to convey the essence of his inspiration from nature – not a straight forward photographic reproduction of the scene in front of the camera.

A black and white image simplifies a scene. The removal of colour from our interpretation of a moment in nature reduces us to consider only its fundamental elements and its simplicity.

Craig’s photographs are perhaps a window from our hectic, high tech lives to a world of wilderness, simplicity and calm. In a world of DVDs, CDs and high speed video games it is good to know there is still a genuine human interest in a simple still image of our natural world.

©Craig McMaster 2005