CREATIVE EYE GROUP MAGAZINE NO. 86 SEPTEMBER 2021
FIELD TRIP: HOUGHTON HALL
SCULPTURE IN NATURE
M
embers of the RPS Creative Eye Group and East Anglia camera clubs gathered together at Houghton Hall, near King’s Lynn, in July for the first field trip since 2019. This year, Houghton Hall has been hosting sculptures by Sir Tony Cragg, both inside the buildings and outside in the extensive grounds – which include a lovely walled garden. Some of the sculptures are enormous, some very small, and the participants were invited to make creative images for a competition of Sculpture in Nature. The competition was judged by Prof Brian Falconbridge PPRPS, whose very considered academic views on photography are always fascinating. With 21 of our photographers spending the day in this quite remote part of Norfolk, it was nice for a social gathering. The weather was perfect for photography, with clouds setting off the outside sculptures.
Winner: Tree Line by Michael Cant For sheer boldness in identifying deceptively simple sculptural form, enhanced by the dramatic depiction of perspectival depth within panoramic grandeur incorporating skyscape, and stark reversal of tone resulting in a compellingly atmospheric image.
Runner up: Full Moon Circle by Nigel Rea ARPS For its quietly dramatic use of scale, the clear and confident use of the arc within the horizontal as a compositional device, the articulate use of a reduced colour palette of grey/blue and contrasting greens, the use of surface and textile to convey recession via the low angle of capture.
Jeremy Rodwell ARPS
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