How to think like documentary landscape photographer David Hurn

"I didn't want to pretend I was Ansel Adams, because he did what he did so well, and why do something second best?" asks legendary Magnum Photos member David Hurn. He first gained his reputation as a photojournalist documenting the Hungarian revolution in 1956 and has worked alongside the likes of Sir Don McCullin, Philip Jones Griffiths and Ian Berry. Now in his 80s, David has taken up a genre of photography that until recently was completely foreign to him: landscapes.

He shares his new interest with Don McCullin, who recently published his first landscape-only book. "I've known Don since the '50s," says David, who was born in 1934, just a year before Don. "He's not only a close friend, but he's somebody who has kept shooting pictures in the way that I have. If I can get up off the seat I'm sitting in – that's my most difficult problem now – then I'll go and shoot pictures. And Don is exactly the same."

Here, David reveals his creative approach, discusses how his landscape projects evolved and shares his top tips for documentary landscape photography.

5 ways to think like David Hurn

2. Question the meaning of what you see

It's easy to assume that everyone else makes the same associations as yourself, and that things we associate with, say, romance, have always been considered romantic. But as David began to explore early landscape paintings, he realised that what's in front of you can mean so much more than you might assume.

"Castles were built to suppress people, but there came a time in history when they suddenly became romantic icons," he says. "You see that in landscapes by painters such as Turner, who painted castles in a very romantic sort of way. All these little realisations give me something to go and photograph. And off I trot for a few days, so I begin to learn a little more about my country. I end up with some pictures that I quite like and that seem, to me, to have a purpose."

3. Ask what humanity had added to the scene

Culture can manifest itself in many ways, and a big part of David's project concentrated on what humans have added to the landscape, such as various forms of art. But he also chose to include traces of humanity that are less flattering.

"When I was looking for the oldest rocks in Wales, what I saw was unbelievable. The rocks were covered with drinks cans and other garbage that some people left behind when they were up there.

"In those circumstances I become interested in the political aspect. And so the picture that I end up taking, which is of the oldest rocks in Wales, is the viewpoint that gets the drinks cans in, to show that people pollute the landscape."

4. Consider what you'll achieve with colour

As a documentary photographer, David has always shot in black and white. But he decided that the landscape genre required rethinking his usual preferences.

"If you're shooting pictures of two people who you think are about to kiss each other, and one of them is wearing a bright orange tie, the first thing you're going to see if you shoot in colour is the bright orange tie. It almost becomes a fashion picture first, and a picture to do with human emotion second.

"That's why I normally shoot in black and white, because I'm not very interested in trying to deal with colour, I'm interested in dealing with human emotions, the relationship. But landscape deals with colour very well. You don't have that kind of problem. And there's no doubt that the colour of autumn is different from the colour of snow, so it seems to me logical to do it in colour," he explains.

5. Ask what you need from your kit

For someone who is used to taking quick, candid shots in the crowd, planning a landscape project presented a whole new set of challenges and requirements. David was aware that landscape photographs in galleries tend to be printed larger than documentary photographs, and he wanted the highest resolution he could possibly get – a camera that would do the same job as a large format 4x5, without the inconvenience of carrying around a view camera.

The solution: a Canon EOS 5DS R. "The quality is superb, it's sharp as a tack," David says. "It can deal with my lack of technical expertise – I point the camera and the result I get is what I think I saw. I mean, who could ask for more? The exposures always look right," he adds.

He uses his EOS 5DS R the way he would use a 4x5; placing it on a tripod and considering the composition carefully. He usually shoots at ISO200 with an f-stop of around f/9, and prefers to back-focus using the AF ON button, a habit he has cultivated over the years as a documentary photographer.

Although the EOS 5DS R has customisable cropping options that blur out the areas outside the crop in the viewfinder, David found a simpler way to shoot for his preferred 6x8 crop: "I used the little grid lines in the viewfinder, and by convenience, the two outside lines are approximately 6x8, with a bit of leeway if I want to crop the image slightly," he says.

Because he shoots with his camera on a tripod, he prefers zoom lenses that enable him to frame the image exactly as he wants, and he always carries a Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L IS USM and Canon EF 24-70mm f/4L IS USM lens when photographing landscapes. "I use the f/4 lenses, rather than the f/2.8, because I'm pretty certain that I'll be using f/8 to f/11 all the time. So I don't think there's any difference between the optical qualities of the f/2.8 and f/4, at those apertures. The f/4 lenses are also considerably lighter, and I'm at the age where lightness is a consideration," he explains.

Although primes would be his standard choice for regular documentary work, he has never felt that he compromised in any way by not using prime lenses in the project. "I don't know if there are any better lenses in the world," he says. "The quality seems to be extraordinary to me. All I'm interested in is the end print, and I've never seen anybody with a print that's better than mine. And having the two lenses gives me the span from 16mm through to 70mm," he explains.

So far, David has photographed over 500 locations, and he is planning to finish the project in 2019. But that's not to say he'll stop shooting landscapes. "I enjoy it immensely. And the thing about the landscape is that you can take it slowly and go no matter what condition you're in – you could go with your Zimmer frame, or somebody could carry you," he laughs.