All images by Yucel Basoglu. Used with permission.
When the topic of landscape photography is brought up, typically breathtaking scenes of majestic cliffs by the deep blue ocean, lush green forest with snowy mountainous background or a beach with golden glow sunrise come in mind. In contrary to the stereotype, Yucel Basoglu decided to present his landscapes in purely black and white.
Based in Istanbul, Turkey, Yucel Basoglu strongly believes in black and white landscape photography especially when it comes to seascapes, or any scenery involving a large body of water. Yucel further argues that just like how black and white can more effectively reveal the emotion and soul behind a photo of a human smile in comparison to a full color photograph that boldly distracts the viewers with colors, this is also applicable to landscape photography. The true beauty and power of nature can be revealed in black and white landscape photography.
This series of photographs by Yucel Basoglu displayed here are all showing the ocean with various foreground and background elements, both naturally formed or man-made. He further added drama to his shots by creatively adopting long exposure photography by slowing down the shutter speed (typically longer than 60 seconds) to create the smooth, silky water effect. This was achieved by steadying the camera on a sturdy tripod and applying a Neutral Density filter in front of the lens to cut a huge amount of light from the day sky, allowing use of much longer shutter speed to create the smooth moving water and cloud effect. By showing everything in black and white, the viewers are immediately directed to the drama drawn within the moving water in Yucel’s landscape photographs.
You may find more of Yucel Basoglu’s photography work on his website here.
