BEYOND THE CLICHÉS

Benedict Brain on taking inspiration from his favourite images

- Benedict Brain

This image was taken en route to The Devil’s Kitchen in north Wales, where I was running a workshop for the Royal Photographic Society. I took this shot on the way to my first ‘live’ face-to-face workshop since before the pandemic in March 2020. In the intervening time, Zoom was a useful alternative; it certainly saved my bacon, but it was great to be out and about again.

This scene shows one of my favourite stretches of road in one of my favourite parts of the world. The sense of excitement and anticipation of arriving in the mountains after a long drive was exhilarating. After months in lockdown, confined to my city-centre home, I dreamt of the day I could head for the hills and drive down this road, hike in the mountains, invigorate my soul and fuel my creative spirit.