baxter photography scotland
Biography
May 1987. Jason Baxter ’s 14th Birthday. A mystery present from his father revealed itself to be a Dixon’s box containing an SLR camera. Having shown no interest in cameras or photography before, he was puzzled and unimpressed, but decided to give it a go nonetheless and started snapping away at the world around him. He quickly realised that not only did he like the way that his world looked when viewed through a lens but that the photographs that he was taking were actually pretty good. From such humble beginnings sprang an obsession with capturing the image that carries on to this day and shows no signs of slackening.
In his younger years, Jason was heavily influenced by the work of Ansel Adams, the American photographer and environmentalist. Working in the mid twentieth century, Adams developed many of the principles of fine art photography and it was through his work that Jason started to learn about the technical craft of his chosen field. More recently, Jason cites Colin Prior as an influence and inspiration, in particular the work he has produced on Scotland. In Prior, Jason sees a magnificent photographer at the top of his game with all of the tenacity, determination and experience that the profession demands. With all due reverence to Prior as the godfather of world class Scottish landscape photography, Jason very much intends to be at the forefront of the next generation.
Of course, the path to becoming a professional photographer has not been all plain sailing. For many years, Jason’s photography remained a passionate hobby, but gradually, the urge to make it a business grew stronger. He began to work as a freelance photographer supplying two major photographic libraries whilst using his ‘day job’ in pre-production for the Glasgow Herald to finance the travelling that has developed the skill as a photographer that we see in his work today. He has roamed from the magnificent mountains of Yosemite Park in the United States to the flatlands and swamps of the Okavango Delta in Botswana; from the bustling back streets of Marrakech in Morocco to the unspoiled wilderness of New Zealand: in short, he has dragged kilos of camera equipment through more international customs checks than he cares to remember. This relentless globetrotting has allowed him to develop his unique style - colourful, bold and innovative. The practice at standing in queues for airport security checks has also helped to develop in him the endless patience that every landscape photographer needs!
In 2004
he decided to take the ‘now or never’ plunge of setting up full time as a professional photographer and
founded Baxter Photography. This business covers the gamut of photography, from corporate work to weddings,
and is the foundation on which rests the fine art end of the business - panoramic photography.
Jason has spent the last two and a half years devoting himself to photographing his adopted home city of Edinburgh. This project has resulted in a stunning original portfolio of images of the capital which has resulted in his first fine art coffee table hardback book named ‘Edinburgh - A New Perspective’. Modern and dynamic, this collection showcases some of beauties of Edinburgh in a refreshingly original way. Never one to rest on his laurels, he intends to spend the next several years on an odyssey through Scotland - the mountain landscapes, the villages, the lochs, the cities and most of all, the sunrises and sunsets that frame them. In the long term he has set his sights on more exotic locations - an itchy - footed traveller by nature, he has an ever increasing list of far flung locations that he’s dying to get in his viewfinder. Easter Island, anyone?