Indholdsfortegnelse for Tuesday, January 13, 2026 i Amateur Photographer

Invisible Sun, by Amani Willett £50, Dust Collective, 124 pages, Hardback, ISBN: 9798989335060 Amani Willett’s Invisible Sun attempts to visualise an inner life most of us never put into words. It’s a rare kind of photobook. Deeply personal and psychologically exploratory. It traces how childhood medical trauma can resonate through adulthood, resurfacing at moments of physical or emotional crisis. As a child, Willett survived two life-threatening medical events – they left an impact and shaped how he moved through the world. Willett builds a visual language around them rather than recount these experiences literally. The book seems as much for Willett as for an audience. It shifts between memory, imagination and the physical world. He photographs his children who act as stand-ins for Willett’s younger selves encountered during intensive therapies,…

LETTER OF THE WEEK Martin Parr You wrote very movingly in this issue’s AP (16-29 Dec) about Martin Parr. I did not know him well but have followed and admired his photography for years. I met Martin once at a friend’s house and told him I was compiling a book of my photos of my native island, Islay. He gave me some memorable advice, as follows. Take pictures of people as well as scenery. The people will go but the scenery will remain. If you take photos of the people, they will be remembered. I took the advice and half my little book, Islay – a personal portrait of the Island by Lord George Robertson, had dozens of people portraits alongside the fabulous scenery of a remarkable island. It sold…

Before starting her recording career, the Jamaica-born Grace Jones was a striking fashion model who became a well-known figure on the disco scene, centred around the Studio 54 nightclub in New York City. Jones had modelled in Paris and New York and posed for legendary photographers such as Guy Bourdin, Helmut Newton, Hans Feurer and Jean-Paul Goude. It was Goude who would become her friend, lover and creative partner. Jones had a hit single in 1975 with the disco funk track I Need a Man (on the French label Orfeus) and she soon caught the interest of Chris Blackwell, the founder of Island Records. It was her 1977 rendition of Edith Piaf’s La Vie en Rose that became a major international hit. Jones’s first three albums for Island – Portfolio…

Newcomers to photography may well outgrow their basic kit zooms rather quickly, especially if they are interested in sports or wildlife photography, with both genres lending themselves more towards longer focal lengths. Typically, telezooms cost a sizeable amount of cash, but there are more budget-friendly alternatives out there. One of the most affordable is the Canon RF 75-300mm F4-5.6. Launched back in April 2025, this optic offers a versatile focal length range with a 4.3x zoom, yet it retails for less than £300. It’s clearly intended to be paired with the firm’s more affordable APS-C cameras such as the EOS R50. On these models, the equivalent focal length switches up to 110-480mm thanks to the 1.6x crop, further enhancing this optic’s credentials as a value-for-money wildlife photography lens. So, what…

When was the club founded? The Walthamstow Photographic Society, founded in 1894, has a rich history of over a century, with its roots tracing back to the Walthamstow Literary and Scientific Institute founded in 1882. What does your club offer to new members? New members are invited to attend up to three meetings for free before deciding to join – a great chance to see what we’re all about. We have a supportive WhatsApp community of like-minded enthusiasts that are always willing to share knowledge and offer advice. In addition, we run a popular six-week Summer Photography Course, ideal for beginners or anyone looking to improve. Participants learn new techniques, meet fellow enthusiasts and gain confidence behind the camera. Plus, anyone who joins the course gets free club membership until…

Whether you are looking to buy a second-hand camera or lens after Christmas, or get the best price for gear you are selling or trading in, it’s good to know which models are fetching the best prices at the moment. We’ve spoken to a range of specialist used retailers to get a market snapshot. Park Cameras www.parkcameras.com According to spokesperson Andy Steel, prices of the Fujifilm X100V, X-T5 and Sony Alpha 7S III cameras are holding up well, along with the Canon EOS 1300D DSLR (proving that it’s not all about mirrorless kit). Lens-wise, prices are also solid for the Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS II USM, the Canon RF 28mm f/2.8 STM and the Sony FE 40mm F2.5 G. ‘In terms of when people trade-in with us, the pattern…

Richard Ansett’s latest exhibition at the Usher Gallery is street photography but not as we’ve come to expect it. It’s not discreet or observational, the photographer silent and melting into the crowd – it’s a full-blown intervention. On one fine day in August 2025, Ansett stalked Lincoln High Street armed with a waist-level camera and an assistant wielding a 10ft flash pole. With the curiosity of an outsider Ansett hoped to make himself briefly, visibly present. The result is an immersive series that celebrates the beauty, drama and unpredictability of Lincolnshire life. Ansett and his lighting rig drew glances, stares, double-takes from shoppers. In an intriguing twist in this often suspicious nation, they accepted him. This unexpected rapport, what creative director Jason Baron describes as ‘baffling synchronicity’, gives the pictures…

‘When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life,’ wrote Dr Johnson back in 1777, and our capital city continues to inspire, excite and sometimes infuriate. London has been photographed since the dawn of the medium, and there are lots of photo collections already out there, but a new book, Panoramas of Lost London, is particularly interesting. It features images from 1870 to 1945, which was a period of massive change – from the high watermark of Victoria’s reign to the devastation of WW2 bombing. Many of the images come from the collection of the former Greater London Council Historic Buildings Division, and have been carefully restored and digitised. The book’s author, Philip Davies, is an expert on historic buildings, having worked for English Heritage as Planning…

Bi-colour LED head offers warm-to-cool variable colour temperatures of 2700-6500K, as well as a collection of pre-set values. Powerful When set to full power we can expect up to f/11 at 2m, with 1/125sec and ISO 100. Control The kit comes with a separate power pack that controls the head and which allows the mounting of V-Lock batteries. It’s not unusual for photographers to be slightly nervous of flash. You don’t know what it’s going to look like until you’ve shot it, and then you might need to fiddle around getting it right before you take the next shot. That’s okay when you’re shooting objects and products, but when there’s a person sitting in front of you, there’s more pressure to get things right the first time. Continuous lights allow…

Lenses Interchangeable lenses come in a huge array of types for shooting different kinds of subjects IN GENERAL, the easiest way to expand the kinds of pictures you can take is by buying different types of lenses. For example, telephoto lenses let you zoom in on distant subjects, while macro lenses enable close-ups of small objects. Large-aperture lenses allow you to isolate subjects against blurred backgrounds, or shoot in low light without having to raise the ISO too high. Meanwhile, all-in-one superzooms cover a wide range of subjects, but usually with rather lower optical quality. Lens mounts On the whole, each manufacturer uses its own proprietary lens mount. Notable exceptions are Micro Four Thirds, shared by Olympus and Panasonic, and the full-frame L-mount that’s used by Leica, Panasonic and Sigma.…

Back in 1826, Frenchman Nicéphore Niépce took the world’s oldest surviving photograph, titled ‘View from the Window at Le Gras’. The French Ministry of Culture has therefore announced a series of celebrations to mark this bicentenary, over this year and the next. The celebrations kicked off with an event entitled ‘200 Years of History, Paper, Ink and Debate’ at the Grand Palais in Paris, which explores the development of photography from Niépce’s pioneering work right through to our AI age. Additional events are scheduled throughout the year, including a major retrospective at the Nicéphore Niépce Museum in Chalon-sur-Saône. While details of all the celebrations won’t be announced until spring, France is ideally placed to be hosting them, given its major photographic collections and long-standing commitment to photographic culture – not…

£50, Thames & Hudson, Hardback, 304 pages, ISBN: 9780500030974 Can you be Levitt? Probably not but this book may help. Few photographers have shaped the language of street photography with such authority, intuitiveness and grace. Helen Levitt had the ability to turn the mundane into the remarkable. This new book is one of the most comprehensive surveys of her work to date and a reminder why she remains one of the geniuses of photography. Studying these pages, after thinking I would never be Levitt, instead I went out with my camera to try. For over half a century, Levitt wandered the streets of her native New York with a small Leica and dollop of human curiosity. Although influenced by Cartier-Bresson, her vision was distinctly her own. The images are warm…

Minimalist photography is often mistaken for empty or overly simple images. In reality, it is about simplicity through clarity and intention. Instead of filling the frame with excess, minimalist photography removes distraction so the viewer can focus on what truly matters. Shape, light, colour, space, and selective detail work together to tell the story. When nothing unnecessary competes for attention, the result is calm, focused, and quietly powerful imagery. Minimalism is not about including less for the sake of it. It is about making deliberate decisions. Each element in the frame must earn its place. This means thinking carefully about composition, spacing and the relationships between subjects. A single line, a gentle curve of light, or an isolated object can hold strong visual and emotional weight when presented with clarity.…

The story of the Nikon ZR all started when RED Digital Cinema sued Nikon for copyright infringement in May 2023. The case centred on the compressed raw video option in the Nikon Z9, which RED claimed infringed its patents. In the end, the lawsuit was dismissed after the two firms reached an agreement. But no one expected that, in April 2024, Nikon would go on to acquire RED. The move would give Nikon access to RED’s highly regarded cinema camera technologies. Roll on to September this year, and the first fruits of the merger have been born in the form of the Nikon ZR – a Z-mount cinema camera with joint Nikon and RED branding on its body. But there is much more to the ZR than merely a marketing…

● £44.99 ● peakdesign.com While Peak Design is now well established as a maker of premium accessories, it first made its name producing camera straps. These have since become extremely popular and much imitated, with the firm’s distinctive quick-release Anchor Links adorning many a camera. I must admit I didn’t see the attraction at first, but now I use the firm’s Leash and Slide Lite straps all the time. While these flat fabric straps are great for relatively large mirrorless or SLR cameras, they’re less well-suited to smaller kit, such as compacts, APS-C or Micro Four Thirds mirrorless, and many film cameras. But Peak Design has spotted the popularity of simple rope or leather straps for these types of cameras, and decided to make its own. The result is the…

Round Eight Movement Action is one of the trickier rounds in APOY to judge, perhaps because it encompasses so many subjects. Everything from sports to wildlife to street photography can make a great action shot, but imbuing the image with imagination and creativity is where the challenge lies. We want to see more than just great panning technique coupled with an ultra-fast shutter speed. As with every round in APOY, we want something memorable that fuses technical skill and originality – be that shooting from an unusual angle, a treatment of a subject that we may not have seen very often, or glorious light that lifts a shot out of the ordinary. Narrowing down the images to create this top ten was no mean feat, but we hope you enjoy…

With film photography, it’s often said that you should buy the best lenses you can afford. That’s sensible advice because, assuming the focus and exposure are good, the image quality is determined by the quality of the lens and the choice of film emulsion. Put the same roll of Portra or Tri-X into anything from a bargain-basement SLR to a pro level body and the character of the final image is still largely defined by the film and the optics in front of it. The camera itself matters for reliability and handling, but not so much for the look of the negative. Digital technology has changed all of that. Sensors and image processors are not interchangeable like film. They vary in resolution, noise control, dynamic range and colour. Lenses are…