Words from BIPP President

JON COHEN

It was good to see TPS back in action, our stand was buzzing, members dropping in, many new members signing up, friends calling by and of course some serious portfolio reviews. The stand team deserve our thanks, they worked so hard to make this happen, and those lovely blue sofas, what a great idea, other stands were totally envious!

For a bit of light relief there seemed to be an informal photo competition going on with our CEO’s phone, I’m not sure who won but very likely it was the highly talented duo of Karen Massey and Johanna Elizabeth.

More generally I think the show itself was a success, especially in view of the covid uncertainty at the planning stage, I really enjoyed being able to meet up with so many industry friends after a such a screen based and largely forgettable 2020. Standouts for me at the show, aside from our own excellent stand, were Colorworld, Graphistudio and WEX, all showing beautiful quality images, in WEX’s case display prints were produced by Genesis Imaging and featured a spectacular image by one of our Fellows, Aneesa Dawoojee. You’d be right in thinking I’m a print obsessive, few screens can compare with the visual impact of a high quality print.

Moving back in the year the gradual unfolding of live seminars started for me with Digitalab’s Residency of the North, a really successful (and fun) 2 day event with some exceptional speakers, it’s a winning formula too, both a Southern event next September and next year’s Northern event are already fully booked. Our Institute isn’t resting on live event planning either, with seminars by Sean Conboy in Plymouth for the SW Region and an outstanding group of speakers for the SE Region’s 2 day event; many more I’m sure to come.

Our competitions and awards are attracting plenty of interest, I enjoyed being part of the judging team for Art for Artistry House, a wide range of entries with some superb images from previous years and it was great to see that contemporary imaging is alive and thriving. They’ll make a historic permanent collection and I’m really looking forward to seeing the winners on display in The Artistry House. Keeping the pace going, the regional print competitions saw some brilliant work and of course we’re now (I’m writing this in September) into the National Print Competition so there’ll be much to celebrate at our November AGM, a live national awards ceremony - I can’t wait!

Before then I’m hoping to be at as many of our regional events as possible, I’m keen to learn so any thoughts, comments or feedback you can give me will be welcome, I’ll be all ears! In a busy October there’s also the Newborn Show which I’ll definitely be attending, Newborn Portraiture has become a key area of business for many photographers and the show has become an important event in the industry calendar.

Newborn also came up for me in another respect recently, I’ve been a blood/ plasma/platelet donor for quite a few years so I just get plugged into a machine and thought I knew pretty much everything there was to know about the process.

Last donation however a donor nurse pointed out three letters on my printout - NEO, and explained why CMV negative blood is so important for newborn babies. Honestly I’d never heard of this or noticed it before but it apparently indicates that my blood is free of a common virus (that was a shock) which means it can be used for newborn babies.

So, just on a final note, if you’re thinking about giving blood, how good would that be, not only creating gorgeous newborn images but potentially also helping to give a newborn baby the gift of life.