Our regular columnist has just published his first book about photography – but it isn’t a ‘how-to’ technique manual, as Niall Hampton discovers

INTERVIEW

Benedict Brain

Photographer and author

Benedict Brain is a UK-based photographer, journalist and author. He balances his personal practice with writing about photography and running photography workshops and enrichment programmes.

Brain is often seen on the judging panel of prestigious photo competitions and in 2020 he founded the Potato Photographer of the Year competition to encourage creativity during the ongoing Covid-19 lockdowns.

Brain travels internationally as a public speaker, talking about the art and craft of photography. He also sits on The Royal Photographic Society’s Licentiate distinctions panel.

www.benedictbrain.com

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This month’s interviewee needs little introduction, as he has penned ‘The Art of Seeing’ column in Digital Camera since 2019 (see page 39). In fact, Brain’s columns have inspired his first book, You Will Be Able to Take Great Photos By the End of this Book, which goes on sale this month. So let’s find out more about the book, and what it contains, from the man himself…

What first attracted you to the medium of photography?

I was always interested in art as a child. I chanced upon photography when an inspiring teacher gave me The Puffin Book of Photography as a prize for making a model of a Saxon village – Iused real wattle and daub and think that clinched it for me. The teacher, Ed Collacott, was a keen photographer and in fact went on the become a full-time landscape photographer himself. I was about 10 at the time and the book inspired me to make a darkroom at home with some old equipment I cobbled together. The rest is history, and Ed and I are still friends today.

Which photographers inspired you when you were starting out?