Sometimes it can be tricky in photography to make everyday life and landscapes visually appealing. But in this particular subject area, Neil C Robinson has made his content stand out amongst the sea of stock imagery. With an analogue-infused aesthetic and minimal editing approach, he has made it his mission to document his homeland of Great Britain.
Join us to learn more about how Neil found his photographic niche, his journey with Alamy and what his pseudonym ‘BritPics’ means to him.
CG: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how you started in the photography industry?
NCR: I started out as a studio-based commercial photographer in London working mainly on large format film. I spent much of this time testing all the various professional film stocks to find ways to give certain looks and styles before the time of digital and Photoshop. I had a particularly close relationship with FujiFilm UK at the time too, which worked very well and I have very happy memories of the team there.
I then moved away from the studio to work on a number of travel assignments around the world which was a dream, to find myself in such places as Easter Island doing what I love the most and the freedom to do it my way too. I was never happier than on a new adventure armed with my Hasselblad and Fuji 6×9 kit. I then had to embrace digital and learn to adapt to shooting on 35mm DSLRs but it was never quite the same for me after this. Though getting through airport security was easier!
CG: What inspired you to start your ‘BritPics’ pseudonym collection on Alamy?
NCR: This simply came about as a result of Brexit and COVID when travelling outside the UK became a little harder and restrictions that didn’t exist before made things harder for me. Also, factoring in the desire to live a low-carbon lifestyle as best I could, I decided to revisit and explore my own backyard after a number of years ignoring it. I treated the trips much like I used to do before, but now with a simple medium format digital kit.
CG: How many locations around the UK have you captured and where was your favourite location?
NCR: I have pretty much covered all the UK with the exception of Nothern Ireland which I do hope to do, perhaps next year all being well, I will obviously include Ireland on that trip too so I am looking forward to that. The west coast of Scotland is my favourite location and always has been, even the midges can’t dull my love for it there.
CG: Your images seem to have a muted colour palette is this intentional and if so, why?
NCR: I get a little frustrated with digital photography at times and often think back to my film days, especially when I was experimenting with various colour neg films, and I think I am just simply trying to get back to those days a little with the colour palette. I don’t consider that those colours are muted – to be honest I just think a lot of digital photography is a little too saturated and bears no relation to reality, though of course I understand why, it’s just not for me. My digital work flow is very simple, I no longer use Photoshop and edit very gently in Capture One where I just tweak the colours to something more aesthetically pleasing in homage to my film days. I don’t consider myself an expert in digital so I think that has a bearing on it too – less is definitely more when editing in my case.
CG: Where will you be heading next to take your images within the UK and why?
NCR: I have yet to decide to be honest as I have to confess that I have two years of work to edit and upload so perhaps I should be getting on with this but I am certainly looking forward to carrying on with this little homeland adventure.
We hope you take away inspiration from Neil’s spotlight feature and if you would like to find out more on how to use analogue photography check out our blog ‘Capturing Nostalgia with analogue photography’. You can find the rest of Neil’s authentic Alamy collection here and his Stockimo collection here. Make sure to be following him on Instagram and check out his website. As usual check in next month to see who will be next in our spotlight feature.
