Charlie Waite Analysis

Charlie Waite Analysis

‘Sinalunga, Tuscuny, Italy’

Charlie Waite’s photographs are recognized around the world and in 2000 he was awarded a fellowship to the British Institute of Professional Photographers. Waite has written over 30 books and is a sought after writer, public speaker and television presenter of photographic programs. In 2007, Charlie Waite was presented with the Amateur Photography’s Power of Photography Award.

This photograph was taken in Sinalunga, Italy. The first thing you see when you look at this photograph is the single tree in the middle of the image; which then leads you onto looking at the beautiful sky and the cloud formations that have been captured. By looking at the position of where the sunlight is filtering through the clouds, I would take a guess and say that this photograph was either taken mid-morning or later afternoon. Just in front of the tree, due to the marks on the ground, it looks as if there is a pathway there as the grass is flatter compared to the very bottom of the image and the grass that is inline with the tree. In the distance of the photograph, various hills can be seen that would create valleys that would be visible if the image was taken from the sky. The hills in the background suggest that the flattened grass in the foreground could be a commonly used trail of a nature walk for both locals and tourists. Looking at the grass, it could be possible that it is late summer / early autumn when this photograph was captured as the grass and the shrub to the right of the image have quite a lot of brown in them suggesting that they are dying down before the colder months. On the other hand of course, the grass might be that colour in mid-summer.

I was not able to find a meaning of this photograph from Waite’s website. My initial interpretation of the photograph is that it was taken purely to capture the beauty of this single tree on the side of a path. After looking at the image for a while, one thing that popped into my mind is that perhaps Waite took this photograph to represent strength. Although the tree is standing alone, it has survived the weather and grown over various years to get to that size which shows perseverance and strength. Another meaning behind the image could be that Waite is trying to express to people that it’s not a bad thing to stand out, as it can help highlight the beauty in an individual object or living organism. The lighting in the sky could also be of significance as the dark clouds could represent negative feelings, and the light towards the background of the photograph representing positive things and thoughts just past the negative ones (the clouds). This photograph could simply be displaying the perseverance of nature, although other trees and shrubs have not grown there, that single tree managed to and survived, to what I guess, quiet a few years.

I personally love this photograph as there are darkening clouds in the foreground of the image which fades into lovely soft, natural light towards the back of the image. The way the lighting and the clouds in the sky were formed at that point in time, helped to silhouette the outline of the single tree beautifully. This imaged has reminded me that although so many cities have been built and forests cleared, there is still nature on the boarder surviving strong.