RPS Creative Eye Magazine 87

CREATIVE EYE

WELCOME

After just a little more than 3 years as editor of the Creative Eye magazine, I am handing the reins over to our Vice-Chair, David F Cooke FRPS. David has an exciting vision for the future of the magazine, and will be showing the very best of the Creative Eye Group.

While David will be commissioning articles, I will continue to design and assemble the magazine.

This (my last) issue celebrates the diverse creativity that makes the Creative Eye Group so unique. We start with RPS President Simon Hill HonFRPS, examining the psychology and visual language of the creative eye. We also explore street photography, composites, fellowship and licentiate successes - and how for some, Brexit and lockdown have been bitter-sweet catalysts for projects and motivation.

CONTENTS

4 A PSYCHOLOGY OF THE CREATIVE EYE

Simon Hill Hon.FRPS, RPS President & Chair of Trustees

8 RE-CREATION

Steve Geer FRPS

12 MAKING MEMORIES

Julie Cowdy ARPS

15 CAPTURING THE MOMENT

Roger Ford FRPS

18 THE VORTICIST WITHIN

Colin Southgate FRPS

20 IN SEARCH OF STYLE

Wendy Irwin ARPS

23 CREATIVE STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

Colin G Prickett ARPS

26 FELLOWSHIP SUCCESS

Michael Kwasniak FRPS

28 LOCKDOWN LRPS

Rebecca Johnson LRPS

31 DIARY

COMMITTEE

Chair Moira Ellice ARPS moira.ellice13@gmail.com

Vice-Chair David F Cooke FRPS davidfcooke@btinternet.com

Treasurer Nigel Rea ARPS creative.treasurer@rps.org

Secretary Gillian Beckett ARPS CPAGB creative.secretary@rps.org

Exhibition and Events Co-ordinator Moira Ellice ARPS moira.ellice13@gmail.com

CONNECT

facebook Facebook facebook.com/groups/rpscg Or search Facebook for ‘RPS Creative’

facebook Facebook Study Groups

Exclusive to Creative Eye Group members. We run small, private Facebook peer review groups to exchnage images and critiques (up to 8 members per group). To join a group, contact Steve Varman at creative.publications@rps.org

flickr Flickr flickr.com/groups/3510780@N20/pool Or search groups for ‘RPS’ Contact: David Ryland ARPS: david_1@btinternet.com

Editor: Steve Varman creative.publications@rps.org

Website: rps.org/ceg

© 2022 All rights reserved. Apart from storage and viewing in its entirety for personal reference, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form without prior permission of the copyright holder. The Royal Photographic Society, the Creative Eye Group and the Editor accept no liability for the misuse of any content or for any breach of copyright by a contributor. The views expressed in this magazine do not necessarily reflect the policies of the Royal Photographic Society or the Creative Eye Group. Unless otherwise indicated, all images are from, and copyright of, the authors.

The Royal Photographic Society, RPS House, 337 Paintworks, Arnos Vale, Bristol, BS4 3AR, UK, t +44 (0)117 3164450 | www.rps.org | VAT Registration No. GB 753 3057 41

Registered Charity No. 1107831

Membership Secretary Bill Coles LRPS creative.membershipsecretary@rps.org

Publications & Web Editor Steve Varman LRPS creative.publications@rps.org

Communications Coordinator Clive Watkins LRPS creativecomms@rps.org

Cover: A Snail’s Banquet by Wendy Irwin ARPS

Erratum

A correction to the introduction on page 18, issue 86 (September 2021) for Palli Gajree HonFRPS, which should have read:

“Palli is the oldest and the longest standing member of the Royal Photographic Society (RPS), and of the British Institute of Professional Photography (BIPP), as well as the Photographic Society of America (PSA)”.

FROM THE CHAIR

From his “Welcome” content, you will see that Steve Varman is handing over his editorial duties to our Vice Chair, Dr David Cooke FRPS. I know that David will maintain the excellent standards established by Steve and which have culminated in the production of a magazine of the quality befitting our discerning members. As I approach journey’s end as group Chair, I wish to express my gratitude to Steve for his significant contribution to the achievements of our group during my spell at the helm.

I am delighted that Steve will continue to design and assemble the magazine.

Suffolk based Committee Member and Exhibition Secretary, Matthew Clarke, recently informed me of his decision to stand down. In thanking Matthew for his help and support during my tenure, I am also reminded of the Creative Eye Group’s origins here in East Anglia which is where its activities were primarily focused when I joined the committee in 2012. Appreciating the global nature of the RPS when I took the Chair, I was keen to promote our special interest group to a position of international recognition and to expand the membership, both in the UK and around the world. After four years in my current role, I believe that I have made a positive start and it has been heartening to see membership numbers steadily increasing to a current level exceeding 570. It has also been a joy to take part in Zoom meetings, so ably organised and hosted by our hard-working volunteer, Jan Harris, which have attracted national and international audiences. These initiatives have generated links with overseas based RPS representatives and will, hopefully, help in our quest to expand our world-wide recognition.

I am extremely fortunate to have the full support of my Vice Chair, who shares my vision for the future development of our group’s activities in a manner that will not only appeal to current members but will also continue to attract interest from potential new members who are looking to broaden their photographic horizons.

You will soon be receiving your invitation to enter the Members’ 2022 Print Exhibition, which will be selected by Dr David Townshend FRPS, Joan Jordan ARPS and Dr Ian Wilson ARPS. The Exhibition will be free to enter. There will be awards for the best prints and a change to the format for print submissions will, I hope, give many more members a greater opportunity to enter their work. If you have any queries regarding entry, please contact me at moira.ellice13@gmail.com

My sincere thanks are due to you as I could not have carried out my duties as Chair without your support and the contributions submitted by so many of you which have enabled Steve Varman to take the magazine to a new level. I hope that David will be able to rely upon your continued support during his forthcoming term in office.

I also hope that you will be able to find the time to attend our AGM in March, which will be held via Zoom, and I look forward to welcoming you then.

Moira

Moira Ellice ARPS

A PSYCHOLOGY OF THE CREATIVE EYE

SIMON HILL HonFRPS, RPS PRESIDENT & CHAIR OF TRUSTEES

With my contemporaries, as students of photography - first at Blackpool College of Art (1983-1985), then at St Martins School of Art (1989-90) and finally at the Open College of the Arts (2011-2015) - we studied seminal texts on how we ‘see’ as photographers, as artists and as human beings. For me, the psychology of ‘seeing’ was and remains an intensely fascinating subject and I would suggest that it should be so for all photographers, just as it is for all other visual artists. What better RPS Group is there for this to be explored, than in the Creative Eye?

At all three of my colleges, the most important text for the study of visual psychology was Art and Visual Perception (University of California Press 1954, revised 1974) by Rudolph Arnheim (1904-2007). Interestingly - and this only struck me when writing this article - the sub-title of Arnheim’s book is “A Psychology of the Creative Eye.” I wonder whether it was this sub-title that gave rise to the name of this RPS Group?

Arnheim was born in Germany at the turn of the twentieth century and was interested in art from a young age. He learned Gestalt psychology from Max Wertheimer and Wolfgang Köhler at the University

Art and Visual Perception by Rudolph Arnheim (University of California Press, 1954, revised version 1974); Gestalt Psychology by Wolfgang Köhler (Liveright / Mentor, 1947); Nikon EM with Nikon Series E 50mm f1/8 lens, released in 1979, the same year in which was published The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (Pan, 1979); and Psychonaut the first album released by Hoopy Frood (2004) … there is a connection, in fact two connections … but you’ll need to ask Steve Varman LRPS about that!

(Copyright © Simon Hill HonFRPS; Nikon EM camera kindly loaned by Bass and Bligh, Harrogate)

of Berlin at a time when Albert Einstein and Max Planck were members of the faculty and at a time when Gestalt psychology was just beginning to emerge.

Gestalt psychology provides a theory that organisms (including humans) perceive entire patterns or configurations, not merely the individual components of those compositions. The core Gestalt principles - proximity, similarity, symmetry, periodicity, and continuity - and the further principles - closure, convexity, figure-ground articulation, common motion, past experience, common region and element connectedness - describe how visual scenarios are perceived in the context of the composite of objects and their environments.

Applying Gestalt principles to visual art, Arnheim’s work describes the visual processes that take place when people create or consume visual art, whatever the medium employed, and explains how we perceive and organise visual stimuli according to definite psychological laws. Consequently, Arnheim’s work should be essential reading

A tight grouping of three petals in a pool (Portugal 2019) demonstrating the Gestalt principle of ‘proximity’

(Copyright © Simon Hill HonFRPS)

Rudolph Arnheim by John Gay, 1950s (Copyright © National Portrait Gallery, London; 52784)

A timber walkway leads to the remote grave of Betty Corrigall (Orkney 2017) demonstrating the Gestalt principle of ‘continuity’

(Copyright © Simon Hill HonFRPS)

for all artists … and that most certainly includes photographers.

At the 1983 National Art Education Association Conference held in Detroit, a public conversation between David Pariser (Concordia University, Montreal) and Rudolph Arnheim sought to explore the origins of Arnheim’s work. The conversation revealed that Arnheim’s generative premise was that the meaning of life and of the world could be perceived in the patterns, shapes, and colours of the world. Maybe the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything is not “42” after all; did Hitch Hiker’s Guide ‘Deep Thought’ get it wrong? Clearly, the answer should have been “patterns, shapes and colours.”

Arnheim believed that artists must study and understand patterns, shapes and colours, and discover what they mean, such that they can use the principles of Gestalt psychology - “visual thinking” - to influence their means of expression, whether that be in a painting, in a piece of graphic art or in a photograph. Arnheim explained that art is a way to help people understand the world, and a way to see how the world changes as perceived through our “creative eye”. He maintained that vision and perception are creative, active understanding, and that we organize our vision and perceptions into structures and form in order for us to understand them; the function of art is to show the ‘essence’ of something … something like the universe and our existence within it.

Arnheim argued that without order we wouldn’t understand anything and therefore concluded that the universe and our world is ordered just by being perceived. My earlier reference to The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams, Pan Books 1979) was therefore not entirely flippant. In The Original Hitch Hiker Radio Scripts (Douglas Adams, Geoffrey Perkins (ed), Pan Books 1985), the Narrator tells us that, “There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory mentioned, which states that this has already happened.”

Whether or not we are conscious of the fact that every photograph we take is in some small way helping us to understand the world in which we live, the study and appreciation of Gestalt psychology will help us to become ever more proficient in our efforts to perceive and portray the meaning of life and the nature of the universe. If you haven’t already read it, I recommend Arnheim’s Art and Visual Perception … and, of course, Adams’ Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Perhaps somewhere between these two works we will indeed find the answer and it probably won’t be “42”.

Nine pigeons take off from the roof of a barn (Arlington, Vermont, 2016) demonstrating the Gestalt principle of ‘similarity’ (Copyright © Simon Hill HonFRPS)

RE-CREATION

STEVE GEER FRPS

In 2019 I had some minor surgery. For a few months I was unable to walk very far or carry very much. Heavy camera gear and new photoshoots were out. Wishing to remain photographically creative, I decided to revisit my repository of underutilised images and try my hand at photomontage. Once I began sacrificing images on the digital cutting table and combining the pieces my imagination took over. I became absorbed and the result was Re-Creation , a series of six large photomontages.

To create the series, I began by selecting images that could be used to make a background – the stage and scenery into which the cut-out actors would be placed. Unused images from a recently completed

project, Skyscraper Magic (see Creative Eye Magazine, issue 81, January 2020), provided the raw material to make structured architectural backdrops. The Skyscraper Magic images were taken in Chicago with my camera pointing straight-up in places where two walls of glass meet to form an alcove on the outside of a tall building. This is the geometry of a giant kaleidoscope and the resulting views of nearby buildings and their reflections are kaleidoscopic.

For my photomontage backgrounds I arranged four copies of a single Skyscraper Magic image into a seamless 2x2 grid to form a kaleidoscope-like backdrop. To relieve the overwhelming symmetry, certain areas of the

backdrop were masked out to reveal, as if seen through one or more windows, another image, a landscape or a cloudscape. This was my stage, complete with its scenery. Now I needed the actors. At one time I had been interested in wildlife photography and made many images of birds and bugs and other beasties. This fauna was soon inhabiting my backdrops. Once I had recovered sufficiently from surgery to go out a bit, I supplemented my old wildlife images with new photographs made by visiting museums and using my easy-to-carry phonecamera to record the stuffed animals on display.

Photomontages are dreamlike inventions that mix reality with fantasy. They are not meant to depict the

CHICAGO

Atlantis

real-world as-is. Their power lies in the way they provoke the imagination by bending the rules of gravity and optics, and by suggesting relationships between unrelated things. As I introduced and positioned the pieces within each composition, I found myself thinking about the arrangement of the many elements, and how shadows, reflections and projective geometry inform our reading of a two-dimensional image as a three-dimensional view.

Photomontage has been popular since the early days of photography. In Victorian England, socially accepted forms of artistic expression were somewhat limited to women, but photomontage was on the OK-list. Ladies of leisure produced books of photocollages with sometimes spectacular combinations of cut-out photographs and hand-coloured drawings.

These wonderful works of art often associated images of family members with those of famous visitors. They therefore conveyed a strong social message. In the 1920s and 1930s photomontage was adopted more broadly by the artistic movements of the time, becoming popular as a technique of design and political propaganda. Hence, photomontage and messaging seem to be intertwined. Making my own photomontages was a little bit like writing a story. Each new element I added developed the plot. As writer

FIND OUT MORE

William Burroughs once said of photo collage “… as a flexible hieroglyph language of juxtaposition: A collage makes a statement. ”

Producing the series ReCreation was both absorbing and time-consuming, which made it good therapy. I’m back out and about making new images with my camera, and further expanding my repository of both utilised and underutilised images. It’s reassuring to know that if for any reason I cannot create new photographs in the future, I have plenty of old material to use in new ways.

Steve is represented at the Perspective Gallery of Fine Art Photography in Evanston, a town just north of Chicago. To see more of Steve’s work, please visit www.stevegeer.com or follow Steve @ stevegeer.photography.

Steve will be presenting some of his work at the RPS Creative Eye Members’ Day in June 2022

Polar Refuge

MAKING MEMORIES JULIE COWDY

ARPS

One day last summer, at our French house, my glance arrested on the pair of flip flops, casually discarded at the edge of the rug. That scene reminded me of Van Gogh’s painting of a pair of old leather boots. I reflected that I’d seen this little tableau many times, when my husband pulled on and laced up his work boots again each day.

We had bought the property in the Occitanie region twenty years ago, as a joint project, after I recovered from a medical condition that had nearly cost me my life. Over the ensuing years, we acquired many new practical skills, including, in my case, a passionate enjoyment of photography. In 2009 I documented my husband’s demolition of two barns, which adjoined the house, to create a courtyard. This photographic diary made me appreciate the power of making memories.

In the eye of the perfect storm of pandemic and post-Brexit, we have decided, regretfully, to put the property on the market. As an antidote to my sadness, I set about making an image library of the many little scenes that evoke memories of the restoration work which we have carried out.

I decided to keep the compositions as minimal as possible, each one framing an artefact which has a special significance. I chose a square

format and a monochrome representation to give cohesion to the project. Each picture forms part of a grid, all standing alone but nevertheless interconnected, telling the story of the renovation.

In selecting the images, I was drawn first to the serpentine curves of the chestnut staircase, designed by my husband for the grand salon to emulate the restored, nineteenth century violiné staircase below. Aspects of rooms

I had decorated, and sinuous details of antique French furniture, begged to be photographed. Charming features of patinated metalwork, whorled woodwork and old stonework also warranted inclusion.

When we finally turn the key on the aptly named ‘Manoir de Bonnefont’ (manor of good foundation) and the page on that chapter of our lives, I am glad that we will have a physical memoire to look back upon.

RHS SILVER MEDAL

In the last issue (no. 86, September 2021) we featured another of Julie’s photographic projects, Fruits of the Earth . We are thrilled to announce that since publication Julie has been awarded an RHS Silver Medal for her portfolio of 6 Fruits of the Earth images when judging took place at the Saatchi Gallery of the RHS Botanical Art and Photography Show. The panel was then displayed as part of a three week exhibition, to complement the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

Julie will be presenting some of her work at the RPS Creative Eye Members’ Day in June 2022

JUST A MOMENT

ROGER FORD FRPS

By nature, I am a curious person. This is reflected in my photography which has encompassed a variety of styles, genres and subject matter over the last 40 odd years.

In particular I love catching that moment of juxtaposition when the reality before me unfolds to reveal a scene which tells a story, asks questions and preferably creates an emotional response. Occasionally, I arrange photographs but prefer to see the opportunity of a photograph ...and take it.

Examples of this spontaneous approach are evident in my images Surrender taken on a cruise ship, Horseboy Freckles taken at the Appleby Horse Fair, Coffee Shop Patron taken without the subject’s initial awareness in Mexico City and Escalation caught on the London Underground.

Patience and persistence are often required. I saw the background Night follows Day wall art in Penzance and visited the site on three or four

Horseboy Freckles

Coffee Shop Patron

Emancipation

The Hussars Widow

Surrender

occasions hoping to find a suitable figure passing.

When I reviewed my images, the old lady pushing her shopping trolley was perfect, portraying the journey from youth into old age. It was one of the first images which I took, which is often the case, and the colours of her clothes and trolley match the background exactly. This is an example of ‘Not seen but captured at the moment of taking’.

I had no control of who would walk in front of the wall. I did not use a motor drive or reconstruct the image in post-production... it is patience and timing which created the image.

Emancipation is an image of a troupe of female stilt dancers at a street festival in Canary Wharf. Their performance related to the rights of women. Again, I took a number of images and selected the file which demonstrated their passion for the cause. By turning the image into monochrome and removing some background clutter I felt that I had caught the message.

My image The Hussar’s Widow was set up, although I recognised the potential of the shape of a hotel staircase. I asked my friend Sue to put on her black hat and coat and walk rapidly up and down the stairs while I took shots at around a 30th of a second to create a degree of movement. We stopped when she started to complain that she was too hot!

On reviewing my files, I decided to include the picture of the Hussar in the frame ...hence the title.

Five Alive is a family image taken through a glass partition in a hotel lobby. I saw the central shape through the glass and asked my wife Angela to press her hand on the glass. My son William was then recruited to appear quizzical.

This image was awarded a medal at the London Salon of Photography and in 2017. I was delighted to accept an invitation to become a member.

Five Alive

Escalation

Night Follows Day

THE VORTICIST WITHIN

COLIN SOUTHGATE FRPS

Help!  I've been taken over by an alien species; the Vorticists have got me!  Sounding like something out of Doctor Who, this short-lived movement in British art existed around the time of the Great War, having been inspired by the Italian Futurists and Cubism too.  I think they have been creeping up on me for some time, as my interest in the graphic arts has increased over the years.  Certainly my renewed interest in photographing reflections and my passion for multiple and mirrored images has led to a realisation that the Vorticists were exploring similar ideas in their paintings a hundred years ago. Alvin Langdon Coburn incorporated these ideas into his photography by using mirrors to multiply the subject being photographed.  He called them vortographs.

Star Trails Blitz

A visit to the London Art Fair of Modern and Contemporary Art was like being caught in a perfect storm of creativity.  Paintings, art prints, sculpture and photography too, proclaimed that there are no limits to what we may attempt artistically.  The overlap between photography and the other arts has never been more clearly demonstrated.  I came away feeling vindicated in my own desire to make ever more creative pictures.

An original photograph always forms the basis for these pictures, usually something with strong lines and bold design, the image being taken with a creative objective in mind.  Modern buildings are prime candidates. There are a number of ways to develop the image but most involve copying the original image several times, flipping over and possibly rotating the layers individually in the Transform menu in Photoshop and possibly stretching the layer too. With each copy layer set to 50% opacity in the layers palette it is possible to see the image building up and adjust or discard layers as you go along.

As with all creative things, experiment is the key word.  For example, a copy of the composite layers could be used to make an inverted monochrome Find Edges layer which can be blended back with the composite image.  Alternatively, plug-ins such as Topaz or Nik filters, may provide a more intense effect. Experimenting with the blending modes on all layers, even adjustment layers, can throw up some great surprises

I increasingly see photography as an integrated part of the arts scene, being used by artists in their creations and they, in their turn, influencing photographers to reach out to the art world.

Quad Image

Ikea

Warehouse

IN SEARCH OF STYLE

WENDY IRWIN ARPS

For many years I was a full time art and design technology teacher. It was when I went part time that I thought I would join a camera club as photography had been a great interest for a number of years and the school where I worked had paid for a 10 week Photoshop course. I learnt loads and put it to good use, creating a new prospectus for the school and other PR images. Club photography I found varied quite a lot and the speakers who visited the club gave me a lot to think about. It was the ones who added textures and layers that really enthused me, the likes of Irene Froy, Dianne Owen and Steven Le Provost. I wanted my own style, never happy with a straight photograph, I started creating painted texture layers using water colour paint, sponges and some acrylic paint. I filled sketch books of textured paper and then

Humphrey’s Grand Day Out

Turner in Venice

Blue Bottles

The Sewing Machine

either scanned or photographed the images. Using Photoshop and blending modes I set about adding these to photographs: it changed my life!

I started with some simple still life images and looked to painted images for inspiration. I spent many hours experimenting, trying out different textures and paint effects until I felt happy with what I had achieved. There were a lot of people who did not like what I was doing. However, I felt passionate about the finished results and I started gaining acceptances in regional competitions. I then felt brave enough to go to another advisory day regarding my LRPS. The advisors were quite positive saying I just needed to change one image which didn't sit well with the other images and then I would be set to go. I went home and applied for the LRPS and changed the image and the rest is history. Since then I have also gained my ARPS and a CPAGB as well as BPE*1. I like to have something to work towards - at present that is an AFIAP. I just need to get to grips with the spreadsheet and I will be fine!

More recently my daughter has had a baby boy. As he has grown, I have started taking photos of him and creating composite images of dream like scenes using background landscapes, skies and my own watercolour textures. Some of these have taken days to perfect, but I am very pleased with the results. I still think I have a lot to learn and, over lockdown, have listened to many zoom talks which I have been able to put to good use in my digital images; as my husband keeps telling me, this is not real photography! It's a good job I've got broad shoulders!

One Worm or Two

Fish Supper for Two

See Wendy’s Highly Commended image Acting the Goat in the 2020 Creative Eye Member’s Exhibition issue: https://bit.ly/3IXhmsf

CREATIVE STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

COLIN G PRICKETT ARPS

First and foremost I am a street photographer. I love visiting cities to explore their streets, history and architecture and to capture those unforeseen moments. I am also drawn to bright colours which are not so easy to find in these pandemic times. Lately I have been trying my hand at landscapes but with mixed success as I am really not the type for chasing sunrises or hiking over hills and valleys.

Amazingly, however, I still have pre-pandemic folders to finish going through. Perhaps there is a gem or two still waiting to be discovered on the hard-drive.

Photographically

I am looking for creative angles and perspectives in-camera, searching for unusual subjects like the car park image in A Car for all Seasons, and employing filters and effects in post-production

for more artful solutions.

Very often my finished images lose their real world identity as I try to unravel the hidden art that lurks within, but photography is always my starting point even though I seem to be heading deeper into the

realms of impressionism these days. Could there be a cure for such hedonism (below)?

My shooting technique is to keep moving, hoping to discover something of interest along the way - it’s all serendipity. Occasionally

Hedonism

A Car For All Seasons

I might experiment with ICM to turn images into abstract art, as in Follow The Crowd, or I might be attempting to reveal those shop window reflections that our brains often fail to register – sometimes with the help of a little extra software manipulation (The Butcher’s Shop).

In post-production I am trying to rein in some of my more extravagant tendencies (just a little). I rarely make composites from multiple images and I will definitely avoid any intense selection work – life’s far too short for that, Dance to the Music would be a typical outcome.

I might also play with borders to add further interest (Shot to Pieces).

Most of my fellow club members can guess which images are mine, just as I can with theirs. I think we all have

Dance to the Music

Follow the Crowd

little signatures in the way we take photos and of the subjects we shoot. One of the biggest compliments I ever received was at my “Breaking Out” exhibition when some rather fashionablelooking art students bought a selection of my postcards as reference material for their courses. In fact, when randomly thrown together in a box like that, they certainly shouted out who I was as a photographer.

As a member of this creative group I naturally lean towards experimentation and pushing boundaries - which rarely endears me to judges - so in the absence of any looming exhibitions I think I must be largely creating just for myself these days.

...and then there’s my street photography and my new 35mm f/0.9 lens which will just have to wait until the pandemic goes away.

The Butcher's Shop

Shot

FELLOWSHIP SUCCESS

MICHAEL KWASNIAK FRPS

Who’d have thought that an innocent chat on Zoom about theatre photography could lead to such an event?

In 2019 Moira Ellice, a good friend and our group’s Chair, suggested I should join the Creative Eye group, and subsequently recommended writing an article about theatre photography, which appeared in this magazine exactly one year ago.

She also asked if I might be prepared to talk on the theme at a future RPS meeting, which I declined, because I couldn’t imagine speaking for ninety minutes on a subject that so depended on instinct to achieve results. However, a few months passed and I received a similar request from Suzanne Johnson, who organises talks for the Bristol-based Western Region, and after thinking about how I might make such a presentation work (including other content like a brief history of theatre photography, some tales of theatrical catastrophes etc.), I agreed, and prepared a talk that was co-sponsored by the Creative Eye Group and the Western Region of the RPS.

You can always rely on stories about actors forgetting their lines, falling off the stage, being drunk on duty etc. to entertain an audience, but I most certainly didn’t expect what happened next. At the end of the talk several members of the audience insisted that I should prepare a submission for FRPS appraisal, even offering future advice if required (it was!). I had a difficult, somewhat humiliating ride when I achieved my ARPS and honestly thought that a Fellowship would be impossible with a panel of theatrical images.

And so the journey began, with early input from Moira, Clive and Joan Rathband and Tony Bramley. A panel slowly began to take shape that displayed two themes - mood and atmosphere. I’d recommend anyone attempting an F to organise a 1:1 with a panel member, and I was so lucky to spend fifty minutes with Trevor Yerbury, Chairman of the Applied and Portraiture team, who was honest, supportive and helped hone the panel, ready for submission.

So it all started with the Creative Eye Group really, and I’m very grateful!

The Ballad Of Maria Marten (Eastern Angles Theatre Company, Ipswich)

Grimm Tales (New Wolsey Youth Theatre, Ipswich)

Four Nights in Knaresborough (New Wolsey Youth Theatre, Ipswich)

Michael will be presenting some of his work at the RPS Creative Eye Members’ Day in June 2022

Above: The Ballad Of Maria Marten (Eastern Angles Theatre Company, Ipswich)

Below and below right: Blues For Mr Charlie (New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich)

LOCKDOWN LRPS

REBECCA JOHNSON LRPS

Would I ever have got around to submitting a panel of prints for an LRPS Assessment if the country hadn’t had a series of lockdowns?

Perhaps, but not having the freedom to go outand-about with my camera gave me the time, and my determination to use that time productively gave me the impetus, and I did submit my panel in June 2021.

The RPS had adapted quickly, and I had fantastic help and advice during a 1-to-1 advice session and an Advisory Day, both done using Zoom. Also my local camera club,

Newark & District Photographic Society, gave me invaluable support. I had only joined the club in September 2020 after relocating, so I really appreciated their friendly help when I hadn’t actually ‘met’ any of the members in person!

I spent most of the night before the Assessment awake, wondering whether I’d have another go if I failed, but to my delight I’ll never know the answer to that question.

Something that I was asked by other photographers several times was “Why did I want to go through the LRPS process?” I’ll admit to asking myself this (in increasingly fraught tones) as June approached. My answer may be particularly relevant for other members of the Creative Eye Group:

My taste in photography, both to view and to try to produce, has moved towards abstract or interpretative

images, those that convey an impression or a mood, rather than very faithful representations of reality. Also, Photoshop is a favourite tool of mine, and my efforts there are often directed towards distorting reality in some way. So the requirements for an LRPS Panel - criteria include phrases such as ‘appropriate depth of field’, ‘correct exposure’, ‘suitable sharpness’ and ‘clarity of intent’ - appear to be a long way from the style of photography I favour.

I decided that, as in future I may produce images that aren’t ‘correctly exposed’ or ‘sharp’, and may even have no obvious subject, then I would like to have the letters that prove these features are there by choice, not because I don’t know how to use a camera!

COLOUR, TONES AND TEXTURES RUTH GRINDROD

This presentation explores how colour, tone and texture are all interrelated in landscape photography. The talk explores how to apply the theory to practice and shows a range of her work from around the UK and further afield.

When: Saturday 5th February 2022

Time: 15:00 GMT

Cost: FREE (booking required)

Where: Online

RPS CREATIVE EYE GROUP AGM

The AGM will be followed by a talk, Working in Photographic Projects/Collections, to be given by Sam Gregory.

In this talk Sam discusses how to start working in projects, the practical and theoretical approaches with examples across various bodies of work. This talk is designed to help single shot image makers explore a new way of working that can help deliver them stronger portfolios and a body of work ready for exhibitions, books and more.

Please visit the Groups website for AGM documents at rps.org/groups/creative-eye/documents/

When: Sunday 20th March 2022

Time: 10:30 GMT

Cost: FREE (booking required)

Where: Online

PHOTOWALK SPITALFIELDS,

SHOREDITCH & BRICK LANE AREA

Meeting at Liverpool Street Station mid morning (time and exact location to be confirmed).

IMPRESSIONS OF THE NORFOLK COAST DAVID TOWNSHEND FRPS

An exhibition of images that interpret the light and colours, shapes and patterns of coastal landscapes. They convey David’s individual perspective on places, be they grand views or intimate details, iconic subjects or mundane objects.

David creates his impressionist and abstract work using incamera multiple exposure and camera movement techniques, combined with blending modes. His unique images sometimes challenge the viewer, inviting you to pause and explore. The results are striking, intriguing and sometimes enigmatic, like a half-recalled memory tantalisingly just out of reach.

David will be giving a talk about the exhibition on 24th February and a workshop on 26th February, both at the reserve centre (see details on orfolkwildlifetrust.org.uk/whats-on.

When: 12th February to 16th March 2022

Time: February 10am-4pm, March 10am-5pm (open daily)

Cost: FREE

Where: NWT Cley Marshes Visitor Sentre, Cley next the Sea, Norfolk, NE25 7SA

* For further details regarding events please visit the Creative Eye Group website: rps.org/ceg

The walk will take place in the Spitalfields/ Shoreditch/ Brick Lane area which has a rich cultural history in the heart of London’s vibrant East End. It provides ideal opportunities for exploring Street and Documentary photography, and is renowned for its wall art, markets and cultural cuisine. The walk will include a pause for refreshment and a visit to Hanbury Hall which is at the centre of the Shoreditch Community and is where the members of the London Salon of Photography have scheduled their exhibition.

When: Tuesday 22nd March 2022

Time: TBC

Cost: FREE

PHOTOWALK

KEW GARDENS

Join us for a photowalk around Kew Gardens. We’ll meet inside the main entrance (Victoria Gate) between 10:00 and 10:15am. This event is open to all RPS members, and husbands, wives and partners are welcome. The only cost is the entry price which is currently £14, but please check Kew Gardens’ website for details and concession prices.

Places: 20

When: Tuesday 23rd April 2022

Time: 10:00 GMT

Cost: FREE + normal entry price

CREDIT: Ruth Grindrod