Over the coming months we will be talking to all of our artists about how they ended up where they are now, what their work entails and what the future holds.The first of our artists to under go interrogation was Pete Tasker, a landscape photographer based in Keswick in the Heart of the Lake District.
I met with Pete in his gallery Viewpoints in Keswick and he was kind enough to tell me about how it started. Originally from The south Cheshire area Pete was fascinated with cameras from an early age. He bought himself his first camera in the early 70’s and taught himself the basics through trial and error using black and white as it was cheaper. The fascination continued on leaving school when Pete started working in photographic retail in Manchester. He was not sure of what he wanted to do but can remember vaguely that it would be nice to do something with photography. After a number of years in photographic retail Pete was made redundant and started working for Royal Mail, where he stayed for over 20 years. Despite being pretty far from his photographic leaning Pete continued to take photographs as a hobby.
“In all that time photography remained a constant if somewhat expensive hobby.” By the 90’s he says he felt he was getting a little bored with photography in general but happened to chance upon the work of a Scottish photographer called Colin Prior.
“ I found his photography and the panoramic format both inspiring and fascinating and it wasn’t long before I was seriously looking into panoramic cameras. Having initially scarred myself silly when I saw the price of a dedicated panoramic kit, I eventually talked my wife into letting me buy a Hasselblad XPAN.”
Pete still has the camera today but very rarely uses it as in his opinion the Digital equipment is now so good he does not need to continue using film though he does still enjoy a trip out with it every now and again. Panoramic work however still accounts for the majority of his work.I asked Pete how he managed to make the leap to working as a photographer full time, so here it is in his own words.
“So how did I come to be involved in photography full time? To cut a long story short, my wife and I were very lucky to be offered a deal where we could leave Royal Mail early. Ultimately we did just that and moved to the Lakes from South Cheshire around twelve years ago. The original intention was to semi retire, work a couple of days a week and spend the rest of the time walking and taking pictures in a landscape we both love. The business of selling started when an outdoor shop I was working in part time asked if I wanted to put a couple of pictures on their back wall. I have to say I was a little reluctant at first but to my surprise they started selling virtually straight away. The photographs were then accepted by some local galleries, we expanded into greeting cards and eventually started hiring halls to do our own exhibitions. At the time we were working from the spare bedroom and the kitchen table and it just got to a point where photography was in danger of taking over the entire house. The logical next step seemed to be to opening our own gallery, which after a lot of deliberation we did. We opened Viewpoints in July 2009 and so far it has proved a tremendous success. I basically take pictures for myself and luckily there seem to be enough people out there who like my work enough to buy it.My apologies if you had hoped to hear there was a grand master plan to be the next Joe Cornish and conquer the world with my photography. The truth is there wasn’t even a plan! The business steadily grew from nothing over a couple of years and although I now live and breathe photography - and make a decent living from it, I am still not entirely sure how it all happened. I do know I enjoy it and it beats working for Royal Mail!”
It has to be said Pete is very modest about his work, which relies on hard work and patience to capture some of the most beautiful scenes our great Islands have to offer. A lot of his work is taken in the morning so early starts of 4am are not unusual and as we all are in the Lake District the weather can dictate what happens next. It has taken a great deal of walking to find the viewpoints for his pictures, a keen eye to pick out the the best composition plus the time waiting for the ideal shot as a storm closes in or some mist begins to lift. The weather also dictates when Pete can get out into the mountains sometimes it maybe weeks between photographic trips and other times he can be out at 4am every morning for a week when conditions are good. We are lucky enough to work with Pete in offering some of his best pieces for you on our website www.castle-picture-framing.co.uk and obviously all these and more are also available from Pete’s own website and Viewpoints gallery in Keswick. If you have a moment take a quick peek and be transported to our beautiful lakes and mountains.