July 2024 Newsletter
Summer has belatedly come, and the warm long days are very welcome…unless you are looking for sunrise and sunset shots. I’d guess that for lots of us good weather isn’t actually that conducive to the images we want to make, but it is good for getting lots of backgrounds and textures captured and filed away. There are all the community events as well though, and that’s good for street or outdoor portraiture, and travelling to new places to explore those new shots. I guess most of us will be loaded down with families and other outside interests (gardens, golf, tennis and all those summery pursuits), so photo opportunities are tagged along with all of those. There are two upcoming spoil yourself Photo Days Oot though, one to Glasgow in July and one to Edinburgh in August, so head for the What’s On pages to see about them, or you can ask if your local volunteer has anything planned over the summer too. Or, maybe even organise one yourself? Help will be given on the logistics side, so feel free to step up.
The Grampian bunch have been out and about again, in Stonehaven, and here is their latest e-zine: https://issuu.com/royalphotographicsociety/docs/ stonehaven_ezine
Enjoy your Days.
Monthly Competition
The theme for June was Sunset, and although the entries were lower in number, they were high in diversity and quality. The winner is: Roger Hinton LRPS Sunset Crossing…and very cool it is too.
Full results on the webpage: https://rps.org/ regions/scotland/ scotland-monthlycompetition/ July / August theme is Food…interesting, and two months to get those in, send entries to Ken, sized at 1000px wide, by as many pixels as you want tall, via scotlandweb@rps.org Littoral
PhotoFest 24
So…was it good, was it worth it, will it happen again? We asked those who attended, and this what they said.
And for the Print Selection process:
Obviously not everyone who attended replied, but that’s to be expected. It may shock or surprise you but a 20% response rate to a feedback questionnaire like this is considered excellent, even though I’d be pretty disappointed. Apathy rules. We had about a 50% response, and typically those that answer are those who feel strongly, and interestingly no-one who attended seemed to feel strongly negative about the whole event. There was some good suggestions and comments made directly, and we’ll be taking those into account for future events.
The concept behind PhotoFest was to give the Scottish members a subsidised event in their Region, and anecdotal responses over the weekend were very positive, especially from folks who had never been to an RPS event before. We’ll do another one, in 2026, and we’ll start the thinking and planning about that soon. Hopefully the RPS Blackthorn system will be properly up and running by then
Documentary Photography Awards Exhibition
That’s the Eden Court Inverness leg over, and the DPA now moves to The Smith Art Gallery & Museum for July, before heading back down South. It’s on all of July, but there is an Opening Night on Friday 5th July (note the change of date) to which you are all welcome.
The number of photographic events being held continues to grow, and here’s the latest, especially for those of you in the Edinburgh and Borders area…Dalkeith Photo2024. The event is on from 8th September - 6th October, and starts with a Symposium on Saturday 7th (£55 including a light lunch), and bookable at: https://www.dalkeithcountrypark.co.uk/ event/dalkeithphoto-symposium/
Introduction Zelda Cheatle, photography curator and author
Keynote lecture:
Changing Ideals in Pictorial Photography. Pictorialism and the Royal Photographic Society. Michael Pritchard, Photo historian, Consultant to the Royal Photographic Society. Constructed Photography. Exhibiting Scottish artist Calum Colvin in conversation with Squaring the Circle artists Tom Hunter and Spencer Rowell.
Cameraless Imagery and Early Printing Techniques. Artist Alex Hamilton in conversation with artists Susan Derges, Angela Chalmers and Joy Gregory. Scottish Archives, Photographic Albums, Aristocracy and Collections. A conversation with Walter Dalkeith, Luke Gartlan and Alex Lindsay.
Keynote lecture:
The Two-way Gaze: Scotland and the Invention of Social Documentary Photography. Sara Stevenson, photographic historian, writer and expert on early Scottish photography.
The Art and Application of the Daguerreotype.Takashi Arai, artist. Tour of the Exhibition, the Interaction of Painting & Photography, Pictorialism and Neo Pictorialism with exhibiting Squaring the Circles artists Tom Hunter, David George and Celine Bodin.
There’s a lot going on out there, and that’s a hugely positive thing. In terms of the National picture Scotland is second only to London in it’s events and speakers etc., mainly down to the sterling network of local volunteers that we have around what is a pretty large physical area. London has a huge amount of people, over a relatively small area, so it makes sense that that will be the biggest and busiest Region within the RPS. There are some other areas of England that do well too, depending on who is in post as Regional Volunteer, and it is heartening to hear that Wales has re-formed back in to one Region, and has an RO and a Committee in place again. It split a good few years ago into North and South Wales, due to unspecified internal differences, but neither were viable without the other…so they’re back together again, and cracking on with organising a programme of events. Braw.
Due to our geography we are lucky to have such dedicated local volunteers in our most geographically disparate areas…the South West has Jean Robson leading the way; Grampian has Nigel Corby who has established a very busy bunch from a zero start; in the North / Highlands Dave Shillabeer and the sorely missed Morton Gillespie have carried on the sterling efforts of Mike Tibbs in great fashion, and by the time you read this that baton will have passed on to Trish Roberts, who I hope will get the support she deserves for stepping up to take over. We also have a new volunteer up in Orkney, Jamie Bodley-Scott… wouldn’t it be great to do something up there? The more central areas also have good local coverage, and in a way they are kind of like London in that there is also a lot of other stuff going on, outwith the RPS, and easily accessible. So, Lanarkshire, Central, Fife, Tayside, all have established local volunteers, and established events. Edinburgh has just welcomed a new volunteer…Filipe Teixeira-Dias, and I know that he is keen to set up some events there. Ayrshire also has a new volunteer in Tracy Ross, who has taken over from Clive who is now RPS Scotland Secretary.
All of this is very fresh, healthy and diverse, and that has come from Dave Ferguson’s open approach to the RPS Scotland committee meetings and structure.
RPS Scotland committee are looking to work within the new RPS structure and help these volunteers with logistics and expertise, to have a programme of talks and a biennial conference, and to have a national structure of help towards Distinctions. If you can help in your area, get in touch, we are all the better for every one of you that do. Even just attending local events helps, and it gives you better value for your RPS money too. Win-win.
What’s On in July?
29th March onwards: Photo Cities - how images shape the Urban World, V&A Dundee. https://www.vam.ac.uk/dundee/whatson/exhibitions/photo-city
29th March - 27th October Diorama Map, Dundee, Sohei Nishino V&A Dundee
5th April - 28th August: International Garden Photographer of the Year Verdant Works Dundee, https://www.dundeeheritagetrust.co.uk/event/exhibitioninternational-garden-photographer-of-the-year-exhibition-17/
July: Documentary Photography Awards Exhibition - The Smith, Stirling https://rps.org/groups/documentary/dpa-2023/#
July 5th Contemporary / Documentary Open Evening at The Smith, contact contemporarysco@rps.org for details
July16th Contemporary / Documentary Day at Glasgow Kelvingrove / West End, contact contemporarysco@rps.org for details
July 23rd Adventure: Scottish Highlands, Cape Wrath Trail. https://events.rps.org/en/4LrdQ66/?
search=scotland&sortBy=date&category=&date=TODAY&keywords=association :Western%20Region
Further ahead:
3rd August, and for the month: Edinburgh Photographic Society - Edinburgh Salon, RPS Scotland Exhibition…a Fringe venue
7th August: RPS Documentary / Contemporary Scotland - Day Oot, starting at EPS for the Fringe shows, and then wandering on, contact contemporarysco@rps.org for details.
September 21st South West Members Afternoon, Haugh of Urr October 27th Northern Photoforum Nairn Community Centre roberts.trish@btinternet.com
November 16th South West PhotoForum Shambellie House
Contact for both SW events: Jean Robson - digmem@rps.org
March 7-9th 2025 Landscape SIG DoubleTree North Queensferry https://billetto.co.uk/e/landscape-group-conference-2025-full-price-ticketstickets-902441?rr=aHR0cHM6Ly9ycHMub3JnLw==
RPS Scotland Committee
RPS Regional Organiser:
Dave Ferguson LRPS scotland@rps.org
Committee:
Ken Ness FRPS scotlandweb@rps.org
Kirsten Bax LRPS scotlandtreasurer@rps.org
Clive Watkins LRPS scotlandsec@rps.org
Local contacts:
Northern
Dave Shillabeer ARPS
Grampian
Nigel Corby FRPS
Tayside
Robin Millar
Steven Whittaker ARPS
Fife
Monica Vella
Ken Goodfellow LRPS
Mark Reeves FRPS
Central
Bob Black
Lanarkshire
Douglas Thompson FRPS
Edinburgh
Filipe Teixeira-Dias
Glasgow
Anne McKelvie
Borders
Fiona Cadger ARPS
Tracey Largue
Ayrshire
Tracy Ross LRPS
South West
Jean Robson FRPS
Orkney
Jamie Bodley-Scott ARPS