We sat down with UK-based photographer Martin Salter to talk about the meaning of nostalgia, the importance of sequencing in creating a series, and coming back to photography after many years.
Memory Lane is about that nostalgic feeling of times that are fading. Why do you think people are drawn to the past, to nostalgia, to a time that is not there anymore. I feel like sometimes photographers are re-discovered decades later simply because their photos become 'vintage' in a sense. Do you think the beauty of your photos is in the fact that they evoke these feelings in present times?
The term 'nostalgia' derives from the Greek words nostos (return) and algos (pain). So the literal meaning of nostalgia is a kind of suffering evoked by the desire to return to one's place of origin. It is a feeling of “homesickness” for past places or times. This can be problematic for one simple reason: what if the place you wish to return to never existed? What if it was just imaginary and when you try to recreate it or remember it, you create something different and ultimately false? Photography is a window on the past but it is silent and two-dimensional. Photographs allow you to project your feelings onto them with no clear sense of what things were really like. A good example would be the way Stephen Shore’s photographs of America in the 1970s have now become “nostalgic” for some as they present a lost America of oversized cars and retro diners but this was never Shore’s intention in making this work. He was exploring space and the camera’s ability to reduce three-dimensional space to two-dimensional space – the fact that he was doing this in a particular time and place which has now become historical and no longer exists has opened the doors to people’s imaginings of what America must have been like then, was it better, was life simpler? How these photographs are read very much depends on the viewer, whether they were a child or adult at the time, their race, their social class. My photographs are a kind of trick – they are beautiful and appear to be “nostalgic” on one level. But on another level, they are an attempt to question everything about what we imagine this recent past to have been, much of which is pure fantasy. They are like little magic spells trying to make you question whether the past really was as you imagined it.
Did you start photographing these places, people etc. having already in mind Memory Lane and the idea to publish a book in the end? What's the process of building a series?
I always wanted to make a book at some point but I had no idea it would comprise of the edit selected for Memory Lane. I worked as a freelance photographer from the mid 1990’s up to around 2005 when I prioritized video work as the world changed. I was always shooting my own kinds of images in my own style and magazines published these as photo stories from around 1997 to 2001. I then moved into shooting advertising campaigns where the art directors liked my style and approach, but I found this an uncomfortable fit and eventually moved away from this way of working. I made various book dummies and portfolios of my favourite images over the year but it wasn’t until the work had aged and time had passed that I understood what the work could mean sequenced in a book. This process of sequencing was very much a collaboration between Tom Booth Woodger the designer and Matt Stuart the publisher. Many of my favourite images are in the book but many did not make the final selection as they didn’t compliment the narrative we were looking for. We wanted the sequencing to be the journey through the country – from the baby in the old-fashioned pram through the towns, the cities, the coastal areas, the countryside. Almost like the fictional journey of an imaginary character looking at an imaginary Britain. This narrative was in some ways about a false memory of Britain – something which ultimately led to Brexit and a complete withdrawal back into the past view of ourselves. I think without Brexit the book would not have had the same power for me. Everything we imagined ourselves as a country to be had passed away and Brexit was the final attempt by some to take us back in time.
Do you think this hinders the 'creative' process and puts more pressure on a photographer or on the contrary helps you see the whole narrative?
I think the sequencing of a book should always be about what you want the book as a whole to say. It should never be a series of your greatest hits or favourite images. You need to allow other people to look at your work as a whole to help you understand clearly how others might receive the work in a new way. I understood what I wanted to say with my work but not the way in which it would be best put together as a coherent narrative in a book. Once I saw the edit reduced from 1000 to 200 to 64 images it all became clear. This is the best sequence of images to create the point I want to make. Britain has misremembered its past. It has walked down a false Memory Lane and has become lost in the process.
After shooting Memory Lane you went into filming. Can you tell us more about that?
In 2006 YouTube was born and many of my commercial clients began to ask for video content. I responded by learning how to shoot and edit video. I made many films for clients and some more experimental films of my own, some of which I have shared publicly and others of which I have not. I recently made a docudrama in the Himalayan valley of Zanskar working with young people addressing the issue of climate change in an accessible way. This will be released later this year. These personal projects are made for love, not money. I hope to produce a collaborative photozine/book on Zanskar at some point as it is a place I have been visiting for over 30 years. The zine will contain historical images, some of my work and work by young photographers from the region.
Did you feel back then that you had achieved your goal with Memory Lane and that you needed a new challenge?
I can never create work like Memory Lane again. That world does not exist anymore and neither does the person who made the work. I was in my 30’s when I shot the work and now I am in my late 50’s. My perspective on the world has shifted and my obsession with photography has waned a little. I worry that at the moment having returned to photography, I am trying to repeat myself. A bit like a musician from the 1950’s still playing rock and roll instead of embracing new ways of working. However, I also believe that the approach to making work I had back then is still the same – a simple Rolleiflex or small medium format camera and some film. I may move away from film after I have finished my coastal project as it is becoming prohibitively expensive which is a shame but I still have 150 rolls in my cupboard so I will keep shooting in the old ways for the time being.
In a previous interview you state that because of digital technologies, certain visual ideas get exhausted more quickly now as they are copied and shared. Do you think photographers should, in a sense, insulate themeselves from being influenced by all these visual stimuli?
There are so many images now that it is hard to imagine it is possible to not be influenced by others. In the past you would be exposed to some exhibitions, magazines and books and find out about new ways of seeing in a slow and steady manner. Having said that, only a very few people got to show their work and be seen. Now we have thousands of images a second being uploaded and I have noticed patterns emerging in these images that after a while become a little predictable but it is very hard to create something entirely new. I have seen some images recently that have felt totally fresh in terms of technique but maybe what we should be focusing on is what we want to say with our work rather than get too caught up with style and originality. If you have something meaningful and engaging to share with the world then share it, as you will find others who will be interested too. I think in a world with such economic and environmental chaos it’s hard to justify pretty pictures, but at the same time the world continues to be both wonderful and beautiful so why not photograph some of that too?
I think you really summarized what a good photo is: “a mix of loose and impactful, natural but also not natural because it needs to transcend the subject.” What skills are needed to achieve this?
The only skills you need as a photographer these days are the commitment to the subject matter and what you want to communicate and the ability to keep trying until you have solved a particular visual problem. I am coming to the end of the line with my square colour format work and will be shifting into another area next year but the core skills are the same. Make it real and make it live and don’t make it too clever as this becomes too much about you and not enough about your subject matter. And whatever you do – don’t make it boring!!
So is it mostly a good eye for subjects, knowing compositions, a mix of both? And what role does the camera play in this?
The camera is becoming increasingly irrelevant. The new iPhone shoots RAW at all settings. It is the 21st century Leica. Small, lightweight, invisible. However, I use older cameras as they create a relationship with the subject and often get agreement form those being photographed more easily. I have bought a Graflex Super D which is a 1940’s large format SLR – the first ever made which allows me to shoot reportage and portraiture without a dark cloth. It is a beauty and will again allow me to access situations which may otherwise not be available. As for the good eye – my advice is this – always try and remember that as a photographer you are trying to represent the world in 2D. It’s not so much about what you see, it’s more about what it is going to look like photographed. A lot of lazy photography just relies on the hope that pointing a camera in the general direction of an interesting scene or moment is going to make a good photograph. It doesn’t. It just makes a badly photographed scene. Think photographically. Think in two dimensions.
You use a medium format camera, what advice do you have for those who are starting off with film photography, and those who are usually advised to try 35mm first?
My advice here is mixed. Film is expensive and it is questionable that it produces better results than any digital camera or even top end phones. This argument is now kind of over. However, if you like to not always know what result you are getting, if you like to spend time processing film, in the dark room, making prints in a traditional manner, especially in black and white, then it’s great. Is it environmentally friendly? Probably not. But the huge servers running to back up our digital photos are not either. I shoot film, for the time being, on projects where I don’t need to shoot lots of images. Over a three-day period on a journey out in the UK I will shoot 15 rolls, or around 200 photos. That to me is a lot of photos. When I travelled to India in 1987 I shot 10 rolls of 35mm in 7 months. It’s all I could afford. So, if you want to shoot film – go for it but it’s becoming very expensive.
You have recently come back to photography, can you tell us more about your new projects?
I am currently revisiting photography to see if there is anything more I can bring to the party. I am finishing my 25-year project on the English coast which I hope to release as a series of zines and another digital project on my home town of Dorking which I have been photographing on and off for the past 15 years. I have the Zanskar project on the go which is 35 years in the making. Finally, I am going to be working with a friend of mine on a project in large format looking at two towns which became “twinned” in the 1960s for a short time – one in England and the other in communist East Germany. I will be sharing all ongoing work on my website so please feel free to drop in when you can and check out the progress. Photography is an excuse to get out into the world and see what it is happening. It should never be a way of ridiculing or humiliating others or a way of showing off. I hope I can keep working but have no desire to be famous anymore (something every young photographer secretly wishes they could be!!).
INTERVIEW FROM TWO ITALIAN RASCALS MAGAZINE - ISSUE 1, WINTER 2022