Highly productive and a bit of a gentleman: Rikki O’Neill
Contemporary Times photographer Stewart Wall creates his own tribute to Rikki O’Neill, inspired by his talk
People filled a church hall to hear Rikki O’Neill speak
Rikki: a modern day Salvador Dali Report: SHONA WALL Photos: STEWART WALL www.contemporarytimes.net
MORE THAN 15 years ago our family visited the Dali museum at Figueres in Spain. Besides producing the most extraordinary pieces of surrealist art, Salvador Dali was remarkable for his sheer volume of output – producing more than 1500 paintings in his lifetime.
I was reminded of Dali during a talk by photographic artist Rikki O’Neill hosted by the Durham Photographic Society on April 10, 2014. Not only did Rikki favour a surrealist style, it was also clear that he was astonishingly productive. With the benefit of hindsight, there are many questions I might have thought to ask him, such as how long it would typically take him to produce one of his finished images. Instead, I was stunned into silence. Rikki came to the talk with a flourish of credentials on the Royal Photographic Society’s pre-event publicity. “Rikki is by profession an
Face to face: Rikki puts a twist on an image he took in Vienna illustrator of children’s books, cards, and cartoons,” said the write-up. “He is represented by top London agent Bernard Thornton Artists Ltd. He is a fellow of the Royal Photographic Society (RPS), a Master of the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain (PAGB) and is on the Roll of Honour of the Scottish
Photographic Federation (SPF). He has served on the L panel and the Visual Art for many years and is presently Chairman of the RPS Visual Art panel.” Besides all that, Rikki proved to be a bit of a gentleman, with a soft Scottish accent and an understated humour. He was passionate about his work and
there was no trace of any desire to produce his pieces for money. Competitions were a different matter. He carelessly announced that a piece that he produced as a Christmas Card was entered into competitions after receiving positive feedback from recipients, and it ended up winning 10 gold medals.
Thanks: Angy Ellis of Durham Photographic Society
Tribute to Venice: visual art by Rikki O’Neill
Rikki told the audience of about 80 people that he had started off as a still life photographer, shooting 95% of his work on a square format camera. Then he began experimenting with post-production techniques, trying to make images look like paintings instead of “plain” photographs. Most of his work is compilations: he might put a photograph of an ornate lamp that he shot in Vienna alongside the
wife’s relatives who, on his first day of battle during the First World War, was killed. He spoke of his passion for Vienna where: “you can’t fail to get good photographs”, and how he was inspired by artist Anna Pugh: “In her pieces, the people all look a little strange, and I like that.” Rikki spoke about taking home sample sheets of wallpapers from B&Q to get wonderful textures, or habitually taking photographs of ornaments
silhouette of a boy he photographed in Barcelona, then draw in extra effects, or he might tweak real people’s faces, but put them on a doll’s body. He liked figures with top hats and cracked, dried out reservoirs and plenty of clouds. He liked images that challenged the viewer’s perceptions. He liked plenty of white or light imagery. An especially haunting compilation image featured a postcard written by one of his
when he visited other people’s houses. “What is art and what is photography?” asked Rikki. “This is art, but it was all made up using photography.” Besides the compelling talk by Rikki, Durham Photographic Society proved an unusually friendly group with a swelling membership, now more than 120 strong. They meet weekly. I recommend a visit. www.durhamps.co.uk