My friend John Nesbitt, who has died aged 77, was one of a small group who designed and built large-format cameras. These cameras slowed down the photographic process and enabled photographers to reconsider and deepen their own practice – in John’s case, his enduring engagement with and understanding of the Welsh landscape, evident in Mutatis Mutandis at the Ffotogallery, Cardiff in 1987. In this exhibition John used multiple exposures on 10 x 8in negatives to explore the ways natural landscape changes with the effects of light, atmosphere and different weathers. The resulting images retain a profoundly haunting quality.
John was born in Carlisle, to Margaret (nee Shadwick) and Emmanuel, known as “Manny”. A couple of years later the family moved to Sunderland, where Manny worked as a buyer for a building firm. John attended Southmoor technical school, Sunderland, where he developed his interest in art, as well as useful skills in metalwork and woodwork. At 16 he left school and went to Sunderland Art School, then in 1964 to Bath Academy of Art, Corsham, which is where I first met him.
