Imitation=highest form of flattery. In the ten years of working on The Wainwrights in Colour I was concerned that someone would come along and try to steal my thunder by either copying my idea and in fact there was another artist who attempted to do so but in oils however this quickly fell by the wayside and I was left alone to complete this unique undertaking. I haven’t even heard of anyone obtaining all the comparative views in photographs but then of course that has already been done…by me. All of my watercolours were worked up from my own photographs taken from the exact location where AW stood to take his own shots and these prints of mine are all stored away in boxes in the attic. I suppose anyone who attempts to capture the same scenes in this way now will be seen to be taking a leaf from my idea given the acclaim that The Wainwrights in Colour has received.
With this in mind many will realise that I have been a long time member and supporter of The Wainwright Society (see p244 of The Wainwrights in Colour) and in the past I have taken part in fundraising events held by the group to help raise funds for local causes including their annual “challenge event” and having given photographs for use in every calendar published by them to date. This year the challenge is to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the publication of Wainwright’s “Fellwalking with a camera”. Now I would of thought that if they wished to do something along the lines of my work they would have asked members to capture the scenes depicted by AW in that book as many photographs in the “Fellwalking” book do not appear in the PG’s and would have been something different but not so, instead they have opted to ask members to capture specific scenes from the seven Pictorial Guides, a decision taken shortly after I published The Wainwrights in Colour. Coincidence? I don’t think so. Was I consulted or asked for advice (after all, I am the one who has done all of this already) ? You can probably guess the answer. I should point out that the similarity of both ideas was highlighted to me in emails sent to me by a couple of friends who are also members of the society so I wasn’t the only one to recognise this “coincidence”.
Purely for interests sake and a bit of fun I have put together seven small galleries, one from each Pictorial Guide of the views which have been listed in the Challenge so if anyone is out there looking for the scenes to capture they are all here.
The Eastern Fells
The Far Eastern Fells
The Central Fells
The Southern Fells
The Northern Fells
The North Western Fells
The Western Fells
Even though The Wainwrights in Colour is all “done and dusted” I am extremely proud of the work that I have done and I will take opportunities such as this to reinforce this. Anyone who has met me or has been to one of my talks on this subject will understand the passion for The Wainwrights in Colour that I still have.
The next project will be just as interesting, watch this space.
All images ©Andy Beck Images
Thank you for reading Imitation=highest form of flattery
